Spring 2012 Magazine

Celebrating 40 Years of Evergreen

Spring 2012 | 1 Vol. 33, No. 02 Spring 2012 Member, Council for Advancement and Support of Education

Publisher Lee Hoemann Editor Ann Mary Quarandillo Designers Judy Nuñez-Piñedo Alyssa Parker ’06 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of Evergreen—Greeners—Geoducks: Writers Carolyn Shea When the person whose name they put on the Plaza addresses you it might seem like a ghostly Ann Mary Quarandillo voice from the past. As I look back over my more than 40 years at the college, as both founding Dick Anderson president and faculty member, I cherish our accomplishments with pride. I also know that it is up to Todd Sprague us to ensure Evergreen continues to offer new students opportunities to excel. Jason Wettstein

The thought of Greeners out in the world warms this ghostly heart. Your energy now quickens Class Notes Editor every single profession, every walk of life. I like to think that, nationwide, you grace action with Pat Barte ’91 the critical and communicative yet humane and cooperative manner gained in Evergreen seminars. Staff Photography Shauna Bittle ’98 Your impressive performance as graduates makes you more important than ever to Evergreen Riley Shiery students of today, and tomorrow. As you know, a college that stirs and expands minds depends and Photo Services upon much more than simple adherence to academic schedules. Bright, needy students must be maintained with generous scholarships, faculty invigorated by attending conferences in their Director of Alumni Relations disciplines, the community spurred by important interdisciplinary minds invited to give lectures, R.J. Burt library and labs stocked with the latest resources.

Whether sharing your knowledge and talents as a guest in the classroom; contributing financially; or exercising your vote and lending your voice to support the college; you are needed. While the Evergreen Magazine is State helps fund Evergreen’s buildings and about a third of annual College operations, they have published twice annually fundamentally shifted the cost of higher education onto the shoulders of our students and their by the Office of Marketing, families. Your support can directly help students or whatever component of academic vitality Communications and is most important to you. Giving regularly to the college in small amounts is a strategy that has College Relations. worked for Barbara and I, and one we highly recommend. We certainly never had a big chunk of money to give. All you have to do is multiply a fairly small figure by 12 months and then by the The Evergreen State College number of years. It’s amazing how it adds up. 2700 Evergreen Pkwy. NW Olympia, WA 98505 This virtual ghost may become a real one any day now, but before that he hopes to see the number of alumni supporting their college as yet one more source of Evergreen pride. In any case, he hopes To submit items for class that each one of you will enjoy a good and thoughtful life. notes, contact the Office of Sincerely, Alumni Relations 360.867.6551 or [email protected], or fill out the form at www.evergreen.edu/alumni. Charles J. McCann Founding President Member of the Faculty (Emeritus)

Although retired, the McCanns remain intricately tied to the college through the Charles and Barbara McCann Endowed Scholarship, established in 1977 at the end of Charles’s nine years as president. He © 2012 has also donated thousands of books in history and literature from his personal library as well as darkroom equipment to the college. The Evergreen State College

2 | Spring 2012 Inside Evergreen Features p04 p24 Every Picture Tells a Story Riding the Hydrologic Cycle If Matt Groening ’77 hadn’t been Into the Future the CPJ editor when Lynda Barry ’79 Cindy Peyser Safronoff ’92 and her came to Evergreen, modern animation love of water may someday wouldn’t be the same. benefit us all. Photo: Angela Richardson

P9 p26 Not Your Typical Women in Radio Net Gains What do a concert violist and an Former Geoduck Jackie Robinson ’02 actress have in common? A home shares love and lessons of basketball. on public radio.

p12 p28 Decisive Moments Define What Do You Love? A Photojournalist’s Career From the Bike Shop to artisan beer, Saed Hindash ’92 turned his passion from potlucks to Geoducks, we’re for wielding a camera into an award- celebrating Evergreen’s 40th winning career. with 40 things that make the South Sound great.

P14 Having a Voice in the Industry Combining his news skills and “The Voice” made Joe Washington ’75 a News & Notes broadcasting hit on WTBS and HGTV. Class Notes p34

Memoriams p46

p16 Trabajando para Usted Jaime Méndez ’95 anchors Seattle’s first local Spanish-language newscast.

p18 Adventures in Biotech For millions of people with rheumatoid arthritis, Patricia Beckmann’s winding path to success has made a huge difference.

p20 Got a Dirty Job? Win Blodgett ’86 and Holland Pump On the cover: Detail can engineer a solution. from the Dragon Wall, the four-story mural that winds up the interior stairwell of the Library building. Completed in spring 1972, it was p22 created by students in the The Market Strategist Man and Art academic Brett Redfearn ’87 brings an Evergreen program, taught by approach to Wall Street. faculty members Donald Chan, José Arguelles and Cruz Esquivel.

Spring 2012 | 3 4 | Spring 2012 4 | Spring 2012 By Dick Anderson

In the 40 years since Evergreen opened, the world of cartooning and animation has been turned on its ear. Newspaper comic sections have shrunk dramatically; the market for alternative-minded artists has gone through a boom-and-bust cycle; and animation has morphed into an anything-goes medium with something to offer for all.

Evergreen was there at the dawn of this transformation. Lynda Barry ’79 sprang fully formed onto the alternate weekly scene, becoming a recurring guest on David Letterman and channeling her idiosyncratic voice into her comics, novels, a play and teaching.

Matt Groening ’77 made the leap from the pages of those same weeklies to create “The Simpsons,” the signature show for the upstart Fox network. Five hundred episodes (and counting) and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later, he rewrote the rules for TV animation, paving the way for the likes of “South Park,” “Family Guy,” and the alt- cartoon universe of shows populating Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.

Craig Bartlett ’81 honed his chops making cartoons from clay, contributing his talents to the iconic “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” and “Rugrats” series before creating his own pair of kids’ shows, “Hey Arnold!” (for the 6- to 10-year-old Nickelodeon-watching crowd) and “Dinosaur Train” (for 2- to 6-year-old PBS viewers).

And Tommy Thompson ’11? He’s the new kid on the block, and he represents the next generation of Evergreen animators. He’s still finding his voice—imagine Tim Burton as an introvert—but he’s poised to build on the talents that made him Most Promising Filmmaker at the Spokane International Film Festival in January.

Lynda Barry certainly believes that comics deserve to be taken seriously— “To this day, it’s one of the most powerful things I was given at Evergreen; “They are able to transfer images from one mind to the next as wonderfully the idea that the thing I call my work is from a different part of me than as any other art form.” She laments “the creep of the scholarly approach to what comes off the top of my head,” Barry adds. “To start developing a comics…Something mighty is ruined when someone tells you exactly how relationship with that working part of me, the part of me that ‘speaks’ to experience any kind of art in the same way fresh string beans are ruined the image language, and to be doing this at the age of 20 gave me a by boiling the living hell out them.” tremendous advantage.”

If you were to draw a genealogy of Barry’s bibliography—her breakthrough At the time, Matt Groening was editor of the Cooper Point Journal, where strip “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” (created in 1978), her novel (and later play) he pledged to print anything anyone submitted. “That was a challenge I The Good Times Are Killing Me (1988), and the writing and art tutorials wanted to beat him at,” Barry recalls. “I kept submitting crazier and crazier What It Is (2008) and Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book (2010)— things—outraged letters to the editor about things that happened to me you can trace it all back to Evergreen, and her mentor, Marilyn Frasca. when I was little that had nothing to do with TESC, or comics that were really strange, comics about little girls who could do things like remove “She was mysterious,” Barry writes from the University of Wisconsin- their arms and legs at will. No matter what I submitted, he printed it. I Madison, where she’s spring artist in residence (her first semester-long came to really love him for this and for all of the wild things he was doing residency after years of doing five-day workshops around the country). with the paper.” “She seemed very interested in finding out what interested her students and working from there, but somehow she did this with very little Last fall, Drawn & Quarterly published Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume conversation. No chatting or small talk. Her information came directly 1 of Everything, which guaranteed that Ernie Pook’s Comeek and the from the work we were doing and she seemed to establish a relationship works that followed will find an audience for generations to follow. “The with our work and then introduce us to it.” alternative weekly jobs may be gone, but there are more cartoonists doing more interesting things than ever before,” says Barry, who has called Frasca, who still teaches the occasional class as an emerita professor, joined Footville, Wis., home for the last decade. “All sorts of people are making the Evergreen faculty in 1973, a year before Barry chose Evergreen with the comics now and, more importantly, all sorts of people are reading them. aid of “a really smart English teacher at my high school.” Barry studied the They’ve become much more like music. In the same way you can make History of the Renaissance and Middle Ages her first year, and the History a song about anything, about sad things or horrible things or hilarious of Science her second year. “Then my third and fourth year I worked with things, comics can be about anything. They’re another way to transfer Marilyn Frasca in one way or another,” she recalls. this thing that Marilyn called an image.”

Lynda Barry’s bestselling creative writing-how-to graphic novel, What It Is, won the Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel. Inset: Barry with her mentor, faculty member Marilyn Frasca. Spring 2012 | 5 Spring 2012 | 5 Before there was Akbar and Jeff, or Binky and Sheba of Life in Hell, and many years before there was Homer and Marge Simpson, there was The Adventures of Lisa and Matt. Growing up in suburban Portland, Matt Groening had his first exposure to the big screen in 1964 at age 10. That’s when his father Homer, a filmmaker and cartoonist, made a live-action short starring Matt and his sister, Lisa, which was shown in a local theater. Groening was as much at home in front of the camera as he was sitting in front of the television, soaking up “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” and relishing the bad-boy inspiration for Bart Simpson decades later, Eddie Haskell of “Leave It To Beaver.”

By the time Groening finished high school, he vowed never to take a test again. He found collegiate Nirvana in Evergreen, and a mentor in Mark Levensky, who co- taught a class on images with Frasca. “You do what you do tolerably well,” Levensky told the aspiring cartoonist. “Now you have to ask yourself: Is it worth doing?”

As editor of the CPJ, Groening began the comics page, publishing the cartoons of not only Barry but also Charles Burns ’77 (whose avant-garde work was exposed to a broader audience by RAW publisher Art Spiegelman). Craig Bartlett remembers Groening’s tenure as editor publishing the 1977 Daily Olympian spoof, The Daily Zero, “that really made people mad in Olympia.”

In 1980, his weekly strip Life in Hell, inspired by his move to Los Angeles, was picked up by the Los Angeles Reader, where he had been writing a weekly rock column. Other papers followed, and the strip has been

After more than 500 episodes, Hollywood showed Matt Groening some love on February 14, 2012, when he was Photo: Alexandra Wyman/WireImage honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

syndicated to more than 250 newspapers worldwide, and spawned 15 book compilations. True to his later creations, Groening designed his characters so they could be identified by their silhouettes alone (a device Bartlett later borrowed when he created “Hey Arnold!” for Nickelodeon). “When I was drawing cartoons at Evergreen, I never dreamed I could make a living at it,” Groening told the Seattle Times. “In fact, I never dreamed I could make a living at it until I was actually doing it.”

Twenty-three seasons and 27 Emmy Awards later, “The Simpsons” is an inextricable part of pop culture. In addition to the Springfield ensemble, Groening continues work on five-time Emmy-winner “Futurama,” his pastiche of science fiction, which ran on Fox from 1999-2003, then got a second life when Comedy Central began airing new episodes in 2010. As demands on his time keep growing, he has mused about ending Life in Hell, but for now, Binky lives.

6 | Spring 2012 Now a proud Evergreen parent— son Matt will graduate this spring with a degree in communication, film and video, while daughter Katie is a sophomore— Bartlett never doubted they would love the Evergreen culture, but he had his doubts about the climate. “But both dig it,” he says. “They like the gray weather.”

Craig Bartlett’s early hand-drawn design of Laura Giganotosaurus (right) reveals the rich environment he imagined, which came to life through computer animation in “Dinosaur Train” (featuring Tiny and Buddy, above left with Craig)—the second Jim Henson Studios show to use the technique.

“When I was young I thought I wanted to be an artist,” says Craig Bartlett, “but I didn’t have a realistic idea of what that was. I thought you’d live in Paris and paint.” As a broke art student living in Portland, Bartlett was a frequent patron of a free film series at the museum. Once a year the museum would screen the International Tournée of Animation, an annual compilation of independent films from around the world. After watching Closed Mondays, the 1975 Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short Film created by Portland-based clay animator Will Vinton, “I got the idea right then that I could be an animator,” he recalls. “They were like paintings, but they moved, and they had soundtracks that were very often Photo: Alexandra Wyman/WireImage experimental and funny. There was a lot of weirdness in there I could relate to.”

After asking around, Bartlett learned that Evergreen had an animation studio and better still, “no rules, no grades.” He transferred in as a senior, and learned the basics of the craft from Roger Kukes, an award-winning animator and visual artist. Each quarter he made an animated short (“they were all terrible, two-minute things”) and he became art director for the CPJ, publishing many of the comic strips he had drawn the previous summer. “I had a dream fourth year at Evergreen,” he says.

When he awoke abruptly in the real world, Bartlett got his first big break working for Vinton, joining an eight-person staff working out of a tiny Victorian house that was connected to a studio. (One of his co-workers was Patty Groening, Matt’s oldest sister, who would introduce him to his future wife, their sister Lisa.) Bartlett labored for more than two years on Vinton’s only feature-length Claymation film, The Adventures of Mark Twain (released in 1985). In that time, he says, “I was responsible for about 10 minutes of finished animation.”

In the summer of 1987, Bartlett went to Los Angeles to work on the “Penny” cartoons for the second season of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” which was staffing up following the show’s move from New York City. Later, after returning to the Northwest, he and Lisa (who worked as a talk-show producer in Portland) both had the itch to move to L.A. for good. “I’m so glad Lisa wanted to come and I would have been so mad if it hadn’t worked out,” he says. Now, after 30 years in the business, “I’m always trying to keep engaged as an artist,” says Bartlett, who also writes the music for “Dinosaur Train.” “A lot of my work is I’m a salesman. I’m always having meetings trying to convince somebody to pull the trigger on something.”

A proud Evergreen parent—son Matt will graduate this spring with a degree in communication, film and video, while daughter Katie is a sophomore—Bartlett never doubted they would love the Evergreen culture, but he had his doubts about the climate. “I really couldn’t imagine them being OK with it,” he says. “But both dig it. They like the gray weather.”

Spring 2012 | 7 What has four arms, two legs, and a penchant for chess and black hoodies? If you answered Elliott, the protagonist in Tommy Thompson’s award-winning short ‘‘High Strung,’’ step to the head of the class. Thompson could have used those extra hands himself in making the 13-minute stop-motion animated short, while shooting digital still after still in his most fully realized film to date.

On March 10, 2011, ‘‘High Strung’’ had its world premiere with an early evening screening in the CAB’s recital hall, followed by a midnight show at Olympia’s Capitol Theater. “It was like an emotional overload,” says Thompson, whose Evergreen mentors include film/video faculty member Ruth Hayes. “Actually showing it to people was really satisfying, but I was also worried. I had so much into it that I wanted to have people connect with it emotionally.”

Thompson was a working filmmaker before he even started ninth grade. At age 13, borrowing his parents’ Hi8 camera, he made a 45-minute skateboarding video, which he sold at the local skate shop. (He earned back about half of his $300 investment, but the video got him a lot of exposure.) While in high school, he did his first animation project using Legos.

The concept for ‘‘High Strung’’came to Thompson around the time he finished his first short, ‘‘Endless Tunnel,’’ which played in a number of festivals around the world, from Seattle to Australia. When it came time to develop his follow-up effort, “I had the idea of having a Tommy Thompson’s 13-minute stop-motion character in a house and every night the pictures on the walls came to life,” but eventually animation ”High Strung” has made waves at he settled on a simpler premise. “I always had the idea for a man in a house,” he several film festivals, including the 2012 Spokane says. “It derived from trying to make it simple—a single character and a International Film Festival, where Thompson single set.” He added the extra set of limbs to his faceless leading man to was named Most Promising Filmmaker. make him “more interesting.”

‘‘High Strung’’—which won the Best Animation award at the 2011 Black Earth Film Festival in Galesburg, Ill.— has also garnered nearly 3,000 views on Thompson’s Vimeo channel. Most came within days of the film’s online premiere last May—before he graduated. “You have to build a following,” admits Thompson, who recently moved to Hillsboro, Ore. “I kind of have trouble publicizing myself—it’s always been a little weird for me.”

The world of the cartoonist can be a solitary one—but it’s certainly a portable one. Somewhere, while you’re reading this, Tommy Thompson might be holed up working through ideas for his next short project. Craig Bartlett might be writing a new ditty on the guitar for Tiny, the junior-sized protagonist most likely to break out into song on “Dinosaur Train.” Matt Groening has long expressed a desire to turn Life in Hell into an animated series, when he has the time. And Lynda Barry’s busy with homework, drawing the same assignments that she’s giving her classes and “especially happy to be bringing a little bit of Evergreen to students at the University of Wisconsin.”

Photos: Hannah Pietrick ‘10

By Ann Mary Quarandillo

8 | Spring 2012 Jamala Henderson behind the mike at KUOW, where she produces the popular arts and culture show KUOW Presents.

Photo: Phyllis Fletcher Not Your Typical

By Ann Mary Quarandillo Women in Radio What do a concert violist and an actress have in common? Performance, of course, but these two have also found a home on public radio.

For Jamala Henderson ’98, a concert violist, it’s a life calling—one that started when she first got behind a soundboard and knew it was where she was meant to be. For Michelle (Hosterman) Borodin ’91, it’s a creative and exciting place to work that allows her to pursue her first loves of acting and comedy. But for both, careers in public radio have provided a way to tell stories, reach out and educate listeners in ways they never expected. Henderson had planned a career in music from a young age. She began playing the viola in middle school, became involved in orchestra, and wanted to become a concert violist. She was part of an award-winning orchestra at Seattle’s Garfield High School, and after graduation, was accepted at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

“I got to Eastman in the fall of 1990,” Henderson recalls, “and I absolutely hated it.”

SpringSpring 20122012 || 99 “If you can build the resources to create your own work, that’s a good thing to focus on. You can build something from the ground up—something I did a lot at Evergreen.” — Michelle Borodin

As one of the country’s top music conservatories, Eastman was very competitive, and she practiced so much that she developed tendinitis in her left

hand, which effectively ended her hopes of playing professionally. “I was devastated,” she says. “I had always identified myself first as a violist. I had to realize that you can’t equate who you are with what you do as much as we all do. I needed to find another way to use my abilities.”

She returned to Seattle, and began working and attending Seattle Central Community College, then moved on to Highline Community College. “It took me eight years, but when I got to Evergreen,” she says, “I knew that’s where I was supposed to be.”

Henderson was interested in video production, and after so many years out front as a performer, she thought she would be happier working behind the scenes. But after studying with faculty like Sally Cloninger, Ruth Hayes and Peter Randlette she says, “I left Evergreen knowing I couldn’t just do that. I had the potential for more.”

After graduation, she took a job at UWTV, the University of Washington’s public television station, doing media streaming for its research channel. Her office happened to be next door to KCMU (now KEXP), UW’s community public radio station. One night, they asked if she wanted to fill in and babysit the soundboard, “and I had that ‘a-ha’ moment,” she says. “I knew I wanted to be in radio.” She took a six-week class at Bellevue College, where she worked at KBCS, learning how to talk and run the equipment.

Henderson began working as a broadcaster at the Evergreen Radio Reading Service, part of the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, whose audio book readings for the visually impaired were carried on most public radio stations. A number of KUOW people worked there, and she kept her ears open for an opportunity to join them. “I chased down KUOW station manager Jeff Hansen to ask him about internships, and volunteered on the pledge drives,” she says. A friend from high school had begun working at the station, and let her know when a job as an announcer for KUOW’s 24-7 online stream, KUOW-2, opened up.

Her work on “Marketplace” keeps Michelle Borodin (Michelle Philippe on the air) in the middle of the action in downtown L.A. Photo: Kirby Lee

10 | Spring 2012 After graduation, Borodin packed up her car and drove to L.A. to get serious about being in the arts. “I didn’t really know anyone, and I needed a job, so I answered an ad to work as assistant to the executive producer at Marketplace.” Her background in acting led quickly to announcing and production, and she started writing and recording Marketplace’s daily 30-second “Datebook” segment. Today, under her Henderson was hired, and in a short time, started filling in at KUOW professional name, Michelle Philippe, she is the production office and announcing on weekends. She became a full-time backup coordinator for the entire Marketplace portfolio of programs, and she announcer in 2004, working every single shift at the station. Although continues to write and produce “Datebook.” She can also be heard on she had no formal journalism training, she learned quickly on the job, American Public Media’s The Dinner Party—“an hour-long celebration and soon became a weekend announcer and reporter. of culture, food, and conversation designed to help you dazzle your friends at this weekend’s get-together”—where she gives lessons on the Reporting those stories helped her realize that producing and storytelling week in history. were what she really wanted to do. Today, as producer of “KUOW Presents” on Seattle’s flagship NPR station, she’s still digging into stories “Working here has allowed me to also be an actor, because I work with that resonate with the community. She’s explored Seattle’s segregated a lot of people with creative interests who are supportive of what I do,” past, violence in films, claiming queer space, and youth violence she says. Marketplace has doubled in size since she started, and she’s intervention. She’s interviewed poets, a naturopathic doctor and a been able to work on a number of different programs, while continuing Vietnam veteran priest, and fascinating people like Starcia Ague, a UW to act both in theater and on camera. “California is an expensive place researcher who, after going to prison at age 15, turned her life around by to live, so I have to pay my rent,” she laughs. “Marketplace is a very fighting for the right to take college courses in jail. fun place to work, with something different going on every day. It gives me a nice creative outlet. I’m not just behind a desk on the phone or Although she took a winding path, Henderson says that all her computer all the time.” experiences, in music, video and production, have led to her success as a producer. “There are so many decisions to make—information, pacing, Both Henderson and Borodin believe in the value of public radio, and learning ways to prompt people to talk based on the right question,” the numbers back them up. Listenership is up over the past few years, she says. “Everything I was as a musician I use in radio—pacing, timing, with more than 65 million people in the U.S. listening to nearly a listening, rhythm. Storytelling is an art, and telling someone’s story is thousand public radio stations to keep up with news, culture, politics, really a privilege. I try to respect that as much as I can.” or as Borodin says of Marketplace, business “for the rest of us.”

A different kind of storyteller, Michelle Borodin has self-produced Marketplace fulfills a critical mission, she says, especially as people a number of projects in various venues around Los Angeles. She is a try to understand the continuing struggles of the U.S. economy, their member of “The Quarterly Report,” a performance collective of essayists, own personal finances, and how to solve financial problems in their where she offers a comedic take on her life—experiences like deviating communities. “You don’t have to have a finance degree or be a stock from a decade of meat-free meals one evening at a hotdog buffet, market whiz to tune in,” she says. “Breaking things down in a way her love of Clorox, buying a mattress, and meeting and marrying her that’s interesting and relatable is what the show does best. It’s lots of husband, Misha. “One of the cool things and one of the hardest things different voices from different industries, walks of life, and backgrounds about acting is creating your own projects—if you’re waiting for the discussing how things affect them at the human level.” phone to ring, that can lead to frustration,” she says. “If you can build the resources to create your own work, that’s a good thing to focus on. Stories that matter in people’s daily lives, whether cultural, You can build something from the ground up —something I did a lot environmental, economic or personal, are the focus of “KUOW at Evergreen.” Presents,” and for Henderson, those are the kinds of stories that matter. “I always ask, ‘What am I going to learn from this? What do we need Borodin can’t remember when she wasn’t interested in acting. Her small to know?’” she says. “I go after what I think is interesting. The more Catholic high school didn’t have much of a theater department, and perspectives we have, the more holistic picture we have of the world.” her most memorable role then was the alcoholic mother in “The Late Great Me,” which had also been an ABC Afterschool Special. But it got As for the future of her business, Henderson sees it as bright and clear. her started. “The idea of getting to play characters and disappear behind “I believe in what we do,” she says. “We serve a valuable purpose: to them on stage was very appealing,” she says. So at Evergreen, she dove educate the public. Our listeners know that and know the importance into performing arts, taking programs that included dance and theater of that. Exposing people to stories they’ve never heard before—there studies, then spending her third year at New York’s Hunter College in an will always be a need for something like that. And no matter what, I’ll intensive program dedicated solely to theater. find a way to do it.”

SpringSpring 2012 2012 | |11 11 Decisive Moments Define A Photojournalist’s Career

Saed Hindash turned his passion for wielding a camera into an award-winning career

By Carolyn Shea

Capturing “the decisive moment,” as the legendary French photographer Henri Cartier- Bresson observed, is the Holy Grail for photojournalists seeking to transform an ordinary image into an extraordinary one.

Saed Hindash ’92 is forever on the prowl for this moment, whether in the streets of Newark, where he is a photographer for New Jersey’s biggest-circulation daily newspaper, The Star-Ledger, or at a high school hockey game or a rock concert at Madison Square Garden.

His gift for exploiting his camera to transfix such moments, combined with his nose for news, has earned him two of journalism’s highest accolades: the Pulitzer Prize and a Dart Award.

Indeed, Hindash’s instinct for recognizing a decisive moment is what catapulted him onto his career path in the first place, while he was attending Meadowdale High in Lynnwood, Wash.

At 16, he approached the editor of the school’s newspaper about covering the fire that destroyed Everett Community College’s library building in 1987. The editor rejected the pitch, saying the blaze was outside the paper’s scope. Hindash—who had taken journalism and photography classes as a freshman and sophomore and grew up in a family that paid close attention to the news—disagreed, arguing that it was relevant and important since many of Meadowdale’s students would be going on to the community college and the loss of the library would certainly affect them. Persuaded, the editor told Hindash, “Go for it.”

That green light turned into a pivotal point in Hindash’s life. When his first published Above: Saed Hindash on the job. photograph, of the smoldering wreckage of the library building, ran in the paper’s next issue, Photo: Thomas Ciszek he had an epiphany. “There was my picture and there was my name,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Wow! That’s pretty cool! I would like to do this!’” Opposite page, top to bottom: Photos: Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger Seeing clearly where his talent and passion intersected, Hindash became single-minded in his Hindash captured Charlie Lee pursuits. He spent his remaining time at Meadowdale as the paper’s staff photographer, and cooling off her gleeful 9-year-old afterwards, he was among those graduates who enrolled in Everett Community College because neighbor, Kasheem Heath. he could advance his technical training in photography there. Then, he transferred to Evergreen.

Using a remote camera mounted At Evergreen, he says, “I could create my own curriculum. I got to pick what I wanted to do, in the catwalks of the Prudential set my own course the way I wanted to.” The course he set for himself pointed straight toward Center, Hindash filmed a New Jersey photojournalism and he convinced faculty member Dave Hitchens, his teacher in the Great Devils-Pittsburgh Penguins skirmish. Books program, to sponsor his senior-year individual contract, for which he interned with The Hindash’s photomontage of Herald in Everett. “Dave was the only one who was willing to sponsor me; he saw the value in tap dancer Savion Glover. photojournalism. Others wanted me to pursue the artistic side of photography. I didn’t want to do New Jersey Nets’ Kris Humphries that. I wanted to be a photojournalist. Dave believed in what I wanted to do. The guidance he gave prepares for a rebound. me put me on the track to where I am.”

12 | Spring 2012 After earning his degree from Evergreen, Hindash spent a few more months at the Everett newspaper before moving to Pittsburgh, where his parents had relocated. He began freelancing for the now-defunct North Hills News Record, a suburban Pittsburgh daily, eventually got hired on staff and spent the next three years covering “the whole gamut of news: fires, accidents, shootings, sports,” he says. “It was a lot of work. I was running ragged, but it was my choice. My social life was not the best. In the beginning of my career, I was a workaholic. I wanted to grow. And the harder I worked the better pictures I made. That was where I got my first taste for what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”

That was also where he met reporter Dana DiFilippo, who became a good friend. Today, they are married; as Hindash says, “Most people in this business marry other journalists because they understand the demands and the love for the profession.” DiFilippo works for the Philadelphia Daily News; and they have two children, 10-year-old Zaki and 7-year-old Amalie.

From 1995 to 1999, Hindash worked for The Cincinnati Enquirer, and when his wife wanted to move closer to her hometown of Philadelphia, he found work as staff photographer with The Star-Ledger.

In 2002, Hindash partnered with The Star-Ledger reporter Matt Reilly to investigate the tragedy of a 7-year-old boy, Viktor Matthey, who died from exposure ten months after being adopted with his younger twin brothers from a Siberian orphanage by a New Jersey couple. At the time, his adoptive parents were charged with his death. To get the full story, the pair traveled to Russia and visited one of the orphanages where Viktor and his siblings lived after being removed from their birth home because of neglect. They also met with the child’s mother, who was unaware of her son’s death until their visit. Their resulting series, published under the headline, “The Short Life of Viktor Matthey,” won that year’s Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence.

Three years later, Hindash was part of The Star-Ledger team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its breaking news coverage of the resignation of New Jersey Governor James McGreevey.

Hindash has seen a lot of change over the two decades he’s worked in the field, not only in the tools and technologies he uses, but also in the industry itself.

As he watches news organizations shed jobs—his own paper is down to 14 photographers from 32 a dozen years ago—he’s branched out to video and occasionally takes on non-newspaper freelance assignments. “I’ve done weddings, family and kids’ portraits, editorial things for businesses and corporate magazines,” he says. “But first and foremost, my work is done for The Star-Ledger.” If that sounds like dedication, well, that’s because Hindash is dedicated. “This is all I ever wanted to do,” he says. “I can’t see myself doing anything else. I don’t ever dread going to work. I love it; it’s a part of my being.”

On his personal website (saedhindash.com), Hindash describes his vision, saying he “strives to capture moments worth remembering, moments that even decades later can make memories come vividly alive.” Through his skillfulness in seizing those moments, he is able to draw viewers into the diverse human stories and emotions revealed by his striking photographs.

“Each day, I pick up my camera and take pictures,” he says, “but it’s never the same thing. That’s why I love this profession. I never know what’s going to happen. It’s never boring. That’s the beautiful part of it. I’m still jazzed about it after all these years.”

SpringSpring 20122012 || 1313 Having A Voice in the Industry Broadcaster Joe Washington used his many gifts to become a respected newsman and spokesperson By Carolyn Shea

As a teenager growing up in Port Orchard, Wash., Joe Washington ’75 was frequently referred to by adults as “The Voice.” Now a nationally known television personality, Washington and his commanding baritone have been in the public eye for nearly four decades.

He enjoyed a long run in local television news and sportscasting, was the original host of “Ground Breakers,” HGTV’s hit landscaping show, and even played a reporter and anchorman— as well as other roles—in numerous series and movies, including the Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump. He has won three Emmys and has been honored by the Associate Press and the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists.

Washington’s first brush with professional interest in his vocal talent occurred in the early 1970s in Southern California, where he and another Greener had traveled to pitch in on a voter registration campaign. “We went to a radio station in Pasadena to do publicity for the campaign, and the news director heard me speak and said, ‘Wow, I like your voice!’” Washington recalls. “I felt like I had gone to Hollywood and been discovered!” While he was there, Washington actually did an audition, but being young and callow, he says, “I botched it.” Nevertheless, he thought to himself, “You’ve got this tool and you need to explore it.”

Master Gardener Joe Washington, the original host Although he was contemplating a career in politics and law, Washington listened to that of HGTV’s “Ground Breakers.” advice. When he returned to Evergreen, he secured the guidance of early science faculty Photo courtesy of Joe Washington member Bob Barnard, who had experience in media. “He took me under his wing,” says Washington. Barnard assisted him in doing voiceover and camera work using the college’s new equipment, giving the sophomore experience that soon came in handy when he landed a paid internship with KOMO-TV in Seattle. There, he was encouraged in his budding endeavors by several staffers, including the station’s weekend news anchor Rod Chandler (later a state and U.S. representative).

“I was going out with reporters on stories and if there was leftover film, they let me do stand- ups,” says Washington, “and when we get back to the station, if we had a short piece to write they let me write it.” By the end of that summer, the 19-year-old was not only a news reporter in the country’s 17th largest market; he was also getting college credit for it.

14 | Spring 2012 It wasn’t long before the “kid at KOMO” was offered a job as an evening anchor by a CBS-affiliate station in Dallas. “Here I am, absolutely clueless, and I’m getting an opportunity to move to Dallas. They’re rolling out the red carpet for me and when I told them I hadn’t finished college, they offered to help me finish up at Southern Methodist University,” he says. “I turned it down and returned to Evergreen.”

He continued getting on-the-job newsroom experience at KOMO, commuting down to Olympia every two weeks. He worked with Barnard on a project investigating the news media’s effect on the Watergate investigation, which was happening at the time and would eventually bring down President Richard Nixon.

“I graduated from Evergreen with a full-time job and roughly two-and-a-half years’ experience,” says Washington. “That couldn’t have happened anyplace else. I was in the right place at the right time.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree, he continued working at KOMO for a few more months before moving on to Denver. “If you want to go someplace in broadcasting, you need to go someplace else,” he says. In Denver, he worked as a reporter for KMGH-TV, but it wasn’t long before he was again recruited, this time by a station in Atlanta. “I had no idea what Atlanta was about. All I knew was what I read in an Ebony magazine,” he says. He was 23, employed as a reporter and weekend anchor in a large and growing broadcast market. “That was 1976,” says Washington, who stills lives in the Atlanta metro area. “I’ve watched this city grow up. It’s gone through a lot of transitions and it’s been fun to be part of that.”

Washington is now a familiar face in the city. Atlantans watched him on local TV for more than two decades, first at WXIA-TV, where he spent 11 of those years as a newscaster and anchorman and another nine as a reporter and primetime sports anchor. During his time at the station he garnered three Southeast Regional Emmy awards, including two for his coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

That same year, he was tapped to host the WTBS Superstation show “interact.atlanta,” a television news magazine that ran for six years and won a number of prizes, including the National Broadcasting Association’s “Best Public Affairs Show” in 1997.

By this time, Washington had stopped working full-time in news broadcasting and had branched off into other areas, including movie appearances and voiceover work. Television news was changing, he says, with programming being controlled more by businesspeople than news people. “I wasn’t having fun anymore,” he says. He made his decision to go part-time when he learned that his mother was sick. “I remember it so vividly. I found out my mother had lung cancer. I realized life was too short and that I needed to go for the gusto. That was my signal to move on. When I got back from her funeral, I put together some demo tapes. I approached management and they were shocked, but I told them I had some things to explore and they let me go part-time.”

For the next few years he covered high school athletics, something the father of two boys really enjoyed because he said, “I was making a difference. It was the most fun I had in my entire career.” Washington also started accruing a long list of clients, including The Home Depot, The U.S. Postal Service, IBM, the Southern Company utility and many others, who enlisted him—and his voice—to do everything from live narrations and corporate presentations to employee training videos and commercials. One of his educational videos for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is even in the Smithsonian.

Washington’s first acting role was in the 1991 comedy, “Livin’ Large!” in which he played the newscaster/ idol of the main character, who dreams of breaking into the world of TV news. His screen credits include more than a dozen films and TV-series appearances. He is particularly proud of having been part of the 1994 smash hit Forrest Gump—he played a news reporter—because it was recently chosen to be included in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, which signifies its “enduring significance to American culture.”

In 1999, HGTV producers asked him to host “Ground Breakers,” the cable channel’s new program on residential landscaping. For seven years, he showed audiences around America the transformations of ordinary yards into “magnificent outdoor living spaces.” Shot documentary-style, each episode featured Washington giving a guided tour of a landscaping project that took four to six months to complete. He became a Master Gardener after he started doing the show and is now on the Southeastern Horticultural Society board of directors.

Washington often speaks at home and gardening shows and events like the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. And he remains active in commercial work and acting, ensuring that “The Voice” he developed at Evergreen continues to be heard.

Spring 2012 | 15 Spring 2012 | 15 Jaime Méndez anchors Seattle’s first local Spanish-language newscast

para

By Ann Mary Quarandillo Five minutes before airtime, the production room is frantic. A mosaic of more than 20 screens reflects every feed coming through the boards at Fisher Communications – home of KOMO news and KUNS 51/Univision Seattle. The cameras zoom in and out on co-anchors Jaime Méndez and Teresa Gonzalez, putting the final touches on their stories for Noticias Univision Seattle, the first regional Spanish language newscast in the Pacific Northwest, and Seattle’s only Spanish- language local newscast. Once the cameras start to roll, they lead off with “la nieve”—the snow that is expected to fall in Seattle.

Even for a native Spanish speaker, this is no picnic. The producer is constantly giving instructions (in English) through their earpieces, the text on the teleprompter is whizzing by at the speed of sound, and yet both Méndez and Gonzalez sound like they’re having a conversation with their invisible audience—which is exactly what they work for.

Jaime Méndez ’95 has been working in Spanish-language media since 1993; his background includes radio, video, TV and theatre. So in 2007, when Fisher Communications moved to supplement its national Univision station with a local Spanish-language newscast, he was a natural choice to anchor the program.

Méndez graduated from high school in Bogota, Colombia. He moved to New York City in 1987, where he spent three years taking English classes and working towards a career in business. When he moved to the Northwest, he started taking business classes at Bellevue College; needing an elective, he found himself in a theater class. “It’s the best thing I could have done,” he says. He switched to communications, and began looking for a four-year college where he could earn his B.A.

When he considered transferring to Evergreen, his friends “said I wouldn’t last a day!” he laughs. “They thought I was too preppy to fit in because I wore suits. But that was outside—not how I felt inside. Once I was accepted to Evergreen, I didn’t even look at other schools.”

Evergreen was very welcoming for Méndez. The traditional classroom system he’d been in hadn’t encouraged him to speak up. At Evergreen, it was different. “In seminar, your opinion counts. I could ask questions and it was ok,” he says. “What you say makes a difference, and I’ve found that is true over and over in my career.”

His first broadcast experience was on Evergreen’s KAOS community radio station, where he began helping out on a salsa music show, and soon began his own two-hour program, featuring talk, music and guest appearances in both Spanish and English. He was voted “Best New Talent” his first year.

After graduation, Méndez returned to Colombia for a short time before moving to Miami, where he got a job with Caracol Radio, a major Colombian station with a huge presence in south Florida. “It was such a great experience to work with people who really know what they’re doing and view their work as community service,” he says. “I’ve brought that way of thinking to my work in Seattle. It’s important to let the immigrant community know what services are available.”

His first show in Seattle was Café y Noticias on KXPA 1540 AM. Since Spanish radio hardly existed in the Northwest in the late ‘90s, he also worked as KXPA’s soundboard operator. But Méndez was in the right place at the right time. “The Hispanic community was really beginning to grow when I got here, and one morning, I opened the paper and there was an ad for a bilingual radio board operator at Radio Sol,” he says. Radio Sol 1360 AM was the first 24-hour all-Spanish radio station in the Puget Sound region. Méndez hosted Latinos Días, an all-Spanish morning radio show, and soon became the station’s program director. 16 || SpringSpring 20122012 Jaime Méndez, co-host of Seattle’s first Spanish-language newscast, behind the camera at Fisher Communications’ Seattle Center studios. Photos: Riley Shiery

It’s funny, he says, that he was the first host on the first 24-7 Spanish radio station, now called El Rey 1360, where he continues to host the weekday Méndez finds that being a part of a large organization like Fisher morning talk show La Voz de Washington, and now, the first anchor on the Communications, which also runs KOMO television and a number of AM first all-Spanish TV newscast. and FM radio stations, gives him and Gonzalez great opportunities to change people’s views about Hispanic people. They work closely with other KOMO newscasters on stories, and have gained respect for their news work and access to the Hispanic community. Méndez also takes advantage of the experience and According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are more than 753,000 Hispanic or connections of the KOMO newspeople when covering particular stories. “Fraud Latino people in Washington state. Of these, about 600,000 are of Mexican is a big problem in the Hispanic community—it’s easy to take advantage of descent. Noticias Univision Seattle works to balance news that is of interest people who don’t speak English well or aren’t familiar with ways of doing things to all Latino immigrants, reporting on major worldwide stories as well as local here,” Méndez explains. “The investigative team at KOMO has really helped us ones, but because so much of the target audience is Mexican, many big stories to dig into those stories, give tips on how to solve the problem and protect our in Mexico are covered, including the current general elections, soccer teams, local consumers.” artists and entertainers.

Not surprisingly, the number one topic of interest with the station’s audience is immigration. So when Arizona passed its controversial immigration laws, It’s not all work and no play for Méndez, though. He is an avid soccer player Méndez and his show covered the story in depth. He and his colleagues know (who played with Evergreen’s Geoduck team for two years). When Univision that there are people in Washington who share negative attitudes towards Seattle signed a multiyear agreement with the Seattle Sounders FC to broadcast Latinos and question the need for Spanish-language media. “We did get some a portion of the 2011-12 games in Spanish, he jumped at the chance to do play- negative emails when we first started, but not very often,” he says. “This show by-play commentary and host a weekly highlight show, Sounders FC en Acción, has been a very welcome addition to Seattle. We’re always working to relate which is broadcast throughout the Sounders’ season. “With the number of the news to what’s going on here in our region.” Méndez finds that Washington Central and South American players who have joined the Sounders, the fan base is very open to immigrants and grateful for the contributions they make, and is growing quickly,” says Méndez. “I can cover something that’s a huge passion of Fisher Communications has been very supportive of his work. mine, and also be a great resource for the Sounders’ Spanish-speaking fans.”

Contrary to stereotypes about the Latino community and the authorities, Méndez and his coworkers have built relationships with local politicians, as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the King County Sheriff’s office, collaborating on anti-gang programs and other outreach to the Spanish- As Méndez and Teresa Gonzalez sign off for the evening, they slip away from speaking community. At the same time, “Our job is to question them—to find the teleprompter and into some comfortable ad-lib comments. “Spanish- out what is really going on and how it can be fixed,” Méndez explains. “So we language news is one of the best resources for getting a message out to the Latino don’t always say just the good things. It’s our responsibility to emphasize the community,” Méndez says. And tonight his closing message is simple. “Ten things our community cares for and that are important to them.” cuidado en la nieve,” he says. “Y buenas noches.” Spring 2012 | 17 Photo: Tyler Brain

The best-laid plans may often go awry, but for millions of people with rheumatoid arthritis, Patricia Beckmann’s winding path to success has made a huge difference

By Carolyn Shea

Patricia Beckmann ’78 enrolled in Evergreen wanting to become a Montessori teacher. By the time she graduated, however—with a degree in biology, chemistry and art—she was on a completely different trajectory.

Today, she is a prominent scientist in the cutting-edge field of biotechnology and the head of one of Oregon’s three signature research centers.

The funny thing is that Beckmann “flunked out of biology in high school,” as she puts it. Granted, it was AP biology, and she didn’t pass because she was homebound with a long illness—not because of some academic shortcoming. Even so, she says, “My father used to tease me a lot about that given where I went.”

18 | Spring 2012 Beckmann’s achievements include a doctorate in biochemistry and tissue, causing inflammation of the joints, RA affects more than a million pharmacology; postdoctoral studies as a Fulbright Scholar at the Ludwig people in the U.S. alone. Enbrel works with the immune system by Institute for Cancer Studies in Uppsala, Sweden, and as a visiting scientist blocking the action of TNFs, which cause the inflammation. Approved by at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.; and a 25-year career the FDA in 1998, the product is forecast to become the world’s third-best that has spanned many disciplines in the relatively young biotech industry: selling drug with global sales of $8 billion in 2014. research, venture capital, intellectual property law, entrepreneurship and state officialdom. She holds more than 40 patents for her scientific In 2001, Beckmann shared the Intellectual Property Owners Association discoveries and has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers. National Inventor of the Year award with her co-inventors at Immunex for their work on Enbrel. Her biggest claim to fame is that she is among the inventors of the blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug etanercept—trade named Enbrel— Beckmann left Immunex in 1993, after the birth of her third child. This which was developed while she was working at Seattle-based Immunex, move proved advantageous because it gave her the chance to broaden her her first post-postdoc job. experience beyond the laboratory. Her next ventures included work for a San Diego-based patent law firm and her own biotech startup, which Immunex—now part of Amgen—was in the vanguard of the stalled from lack of funding. She was later rehired by Immunex to work in biopharmaceutical revolution. Focused on generating drugs to treat the legal department and as a scientific liaison in research administration. immune-system disorders, it was known for its irreverent culture, which encouraged scientists to take risks in the lab, even if they might fail. By the early 2000s, Beckmann was managing biotech investments for According to Beckmann, she “got a lot of grief” from her NCI colleagues Vulcan Capital, the investment vehicle for Microsoft cofounder Paul in 1988, when she decided to “join this crazy biotech startup. That was Allen. “That was like an experiential MBA,” she says. “You learned from considered the dark side then,” she says. “They didn’t understand that experience more than from books, much like Evergreen.” This was followed wherever I was able to apply my expertise, I wanted to make a difference. by a stint as a Kauffman Fellow at the Accelerator Corporation, a Seattle What I want to do is create drugs and get them on the market to help investment firm and biotech incubator. She was also the founding chief people.” At Immunex this was possible. scientist of Homestead Clinical, an Accelerator-backed startup focused on the development of diagnostic biomarkers for oncology and other Beckmann’s turnabout from aspiring Montessori educator to altruistic disease indications. biotech leader began at Evergreen, where an emergency medical services internship and training as an EMT with Olympia’s McLane Fire In 2008, Beckmann was appointed president and executive director of Department sparked an interest in exploring the medical field. the Oregon Translational Research and Drug Development Institute, a state initiative to promote regional economic development by fostering She spent the summer after her freshman year working on an ambulance collaboration between Oregon universities and biotech entrepreneurs. in Northfield, Ill., close to her Chicago-area hometown of Winnetka, and Oregon has been called a “flyover state” because venture capitalists go when she returned to campus in the fall, she enrolled in the Foundations from California to Washington to invest in startups, particularly in the of Science program. This stoked her interest in going further, in coming bioscience sector. Beckmann and her organization intend to change this. up with a project using the college’s scanning electron microscope to take pictures of bacteriophage infecting E. coli bacteria and in doing an Also known as OTRADI, the institute assists university researchers in individual study contract in chemistry. “I learned how to get up in front of the state in translating their biological ideas into new medical products. people, something I was scared to do, and derive equations,” she says. It can validate research and speed up the process of getting drugs on the “I learned to think on my feet.” market. It provides investigators with access to tools that were previously unavailable or prohibitively expensive, offering a laboratory-based Her career choice was also motivated by losing her mother to cancer when program with state-of-the-art instruments and technicians who can rapidly Photo: Tyler Brain Beckmann was 8 years old, something she says she didn’t realize until she determine the potential of different compounds to treat targeted diseases. was interviewed for the Fulbright fellowship at the Ludwig Institute while OTRADI’s lab is capable of testing more than 10,000 chemicals a day for completing her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona. When asked why she drug-like activity. The center is also amassing a “library” of thousands of wanted the position, she answered, “My mom died from cancer, that’s why.” natural and synthetic compounds for screening. Before then, she says, “I didn’t understand it. I didn’t even know that that was probably seminal in leading me in the direction I was going.” Last year, with Oregon’s other signature research centers (ONAMI and Oregon BEST), OTRADI was awarded $1 million in the i6 Challenge, a As a scientist at Immunex, Beckmann immersed herself in numerous new federal competition to identify the nation’s best ideas for technology research projects, including an investigation of tumor necrosis factor commercialization and entrepreneurship. receptors (TNFRs). Located on a cell’s surface membrane, these receptors intercept harmful tumor-necrosis factor (TNF) proteins and prevent them From her office in Portland, Beckmann makes use of her diverse from damaging cells. background in science and business to lead the charge in transforming the state into a hub of bioscience innovation. And yet, there’s still a little of Beckmann’s work identifying TNFRs was crucial in the development the would-be educator at work in what she’s doing. “I’m mentoring others, of Enbrel, the first in a new class of drugs called TNF inhibitors, which helping them innovate and avoid the pitfalls in getting a product out are prescribed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A chronic to help people more rapidly,” she says. “It gets back to my desire to be a autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy Montessori teacher: I like to teach.”

”You learned from experience more than from books, much like Evergreen.”

— Patricia Beckmann

SpringSpring 2012 2012 | |19 19 Win Blodgett (above) and Holland Pump are helping to restore water levels in the Everglades through projects like the Faka Union Canal Pump Station (below, opposite), part of the $79 million Picayune Strand Restoration Project in south Florida’s Collier County. Photos: Holland Pump

By Ann Mary Quarandillo

Win Blodgett and Holland Pump can engineer a solution

On October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma slammed into Florida’s southwest coast. The third hurricane of the 2005 season to reach category 5 status, Wilma remains the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic, with wind speeds topping 175 miles per hour. Although the storm passed over the state in a short but intense four hours, rainfall exceeded 9 inches in some places. By the time it tore through Florida’s most heavily populated area of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, more than 25 people were dead and the storm surge had submerged much of South Florida.

When flooding like this occurs, all that water doesn’t just magically drain away. Within days of Wilma’s landfall, Holland Pump and the company’s president, Win Blodgett ’86, were on the scene, helping farmers pump millions of gallons of water away from their fields, and cities deal with water and sewer systems overwhelmed by the storm.

Whether creating the stormwater and sewer systems for a development or trying to pull millions of gallons of oil out of the ocean, most people don’t give much thought to the critical piece of equipment that makes these feats possible. Through his first 13 years in the construction industry, Blodgett didn’t think about pumps much either. He used them, of course—dewatering is a key step in many construction projects. But in 1999, when he and his father purchased Holland Pump, he had no idea that today they’d be involved in projects from hurricane cleanup to restoring the Everglades.

He actually had no idea that he’d end up in business at all. Blodgett started out as a music major at Ohio State University. He transferred as a junior to Evergreen, where he continued to study music, but also found a deep interest in social anthropology. He studied the work of seminal anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner, who had lived with and studied the Ndembu tribe of Zambia in the early 1950s. In 1985, after Victor’s death, Edith returned to Zambia, and Blodgett went along as her assistant, studying the tribe’s healing rituals and completing his thesis on the topic. Their book, Experiencing Ritual, was published in 1992. “That was my first real exposure to being in an area with no electricity, no stores, nothing we’re used to, and experiencing traditional culture,” he says. “It was a complete change. I gained a lot of self-confidence from that, knowing that whatever you do, you can be successful at it.” 20 |o Spring 2012 Even though it was unexpected, Blodgett has been very successful with and no water for millions of customers, or sewage flowing to treatment Holland Pump. Holland manufactures, sells, rents and services pumps with facilities instead of overflowing into local streams. Holland’s pumps are capacities up to 150,000 gallons per minute. These aren’t your average used all over as backups for sewer lift stations, or to bypass sewer lines basement pumps. All sorts of industries—from construction and utilities when they need emergency repairs. to mining and marine—have needs for dewatering or managing water. “In Florida and lots of coastal areas, the water table is quite high, so any time Pumps are also a key component in the nation’s largest environmental you are doing work underground you need to manage the groundwater,” restoration project—the repair of Florida’s Everglades. This “River of Blodgett explains. “Storm water is also a big concern, and pumps are a Grass,” a collection of sawgrass marshes, freshwater ponds, prairies and critical component of the infrastructure.” forests, covered 4,000 miles of South Florida just a century ago. Today it is half that size, drained by agriculture, development and flood control. Much of Blodgett’s work managing water is not clean and sparkling. “Lots of our projects look like an episode of ‘Dirty Jobs,’” he jokes. But he’s Holland Pump is working with the federal Comprehensive Everglades serious when he explains the number of different remediation projects Restoration Plan (CERP) on a number of projects to pump more water where their pumps have made the difference between habitable land and back into the Everglades. In 2011, Holland was selected as the pump untainted water or contamination that can render an area unlivable for supplier and dewatering contractor for the Faka Union Canal Pump decades. Holland has provided pumps for oil spills worldwide, cleaned Station, part of a $79 million restoration project in south Florida’s up leaking underground fuel tanks at gas stations, and kept sewer systems Collier County. “Building pump stations in the Everglades might seem going when the lines break. Its subsidiary, LobePro, makes pumps that counterintuitive to preserving a natural area, but it’s a critical part of tackle harsher sludges and slurries, chemicals and corrosive liquids for restoring water levels in the region,” says Blodgett. heavy industry. Building pumps allows Holland not only to help customers but also to Blodgett’s pumps are removing arsenic contamination at the Fort manage equipment better and do things better environmentally. “We have Lauderdale airport, and remediating lead-tainted soil in a residential a number of safety mechanisms to protect the environment in all kinds development built on a former gun range. They clean up wastewater from of industries,” Blodgett says. “Around some mines, nuclear power plants, millions of acres of farms in Florida, the Gulf Coast and Texas, and work sewage systems—when there is heavy rain, the fluid that would leach into with sugar processors who are using sugarcane byproducts to manufacture the environment can be very toxic. It can even destroy the pump itself. So fuel. The variety of problems that need pumps leads to a lot of innovation. it has to be made of the right material, and when the pump is called on, it Holland’s engineers and pump consultants use their experience in the field has to pump flawlessly.” to design pumps and create plans to solve those problems. Lately, Holland has been reaching out to international markets. “There is “I definitely have carried the can-do attitude I learned from Evergreen,” a widespread perception that American-made products are still the best says Blodgett. “Evergreen teaches students how to learn, discover their made,” Blodgett explains. “Many of the largest multinational engineering learning style and have a spectrum of skills to be able to research and firms specify American-made pumps because the engineering and obtain answers to questions and solve problems.” reliability is there. We should be able to do well as long as we innovate and change with the times.” Only 10 companies in the U.S. do what Holland Pump does, and several are much larger multinational corporations. Holland’s 70 Some of Holland Pump’s innovations include using vegetable and other employees are divided between rental and service operations in Florida biodegradable non toxic oils in its hydraulic systems to mitigate the and a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Georgia. Blodgett environmental impact of leaks, and using telemetry and GPS technology says Holland offers customers something different than the bigger to monitor, start and stop equipment from a distance, and respond companies—a commitment to service and customized solutions. “We proactively to keep equipment running. don’t have all their resources, but we can respond quickly and customize engineering solutions more quickly than large companies.” In fact, While Holland’s staff is planning major projects, they must be constantly Holland guarantees that any client with a pump problem, anywhere in ready for emergencies. “Projects involving water can get exponentially the U.S., will have someone on call to fix it within two hours. worse very quickly,” Blodgett explains. “When a pump fails, it can translate to days of delay. Our biggest challenge and asset is our service— For municipal engineers in cities and small towns with eroding the logistical ability to quickly deliver and set up pumps and keep them infrastructure, that kind of service can mean the difference between water running 24/7. It’s an adrenaline rush.”

SpringSpring 2012 2012 | |21 21 Brett Redfearn ’87 brings an Evergreen approach to Wall Street

By Ann Mary Quarandillo Ask Brett Redfearn ’87 to describe his job at J.P. Morgan Securities in New York, and the first thing he’ll tell you is this: “I can tell you all about how markets work, but I'm not paid to pick stocks.”

Most people even in the financial industry have a hard time understanding what Redfearn does as J.P. Morgan’s head of market structure strategy for the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Instead of selecting investments, his job is to understand the markets at the micro-structure level — analyzing the relationships between regulations, technology and trading practices, then educating both colleagues and clients about the constantly changing cycle of activity.

22 | Spring 2012 “Markets are like living breathing organisms. There are so many After eventually running a strategy and transactions team at the different variables influencing what is happening,” Redfearn says. “There American Stock Exchange, Redfearn moved on to Bear Stearns, where are opportunistic short-term traders, large institutions investing for the he was responsible for equities market structure when J.P. Morgan long term, massive amounts of market data, and psychology and fear. bought the company in mid-2008. He was retained by JP Morgan Markets are highly fragmented, trading speeds are ultra-fast, and prices, during that tumultuous time. “I think that I was able to survive the or spreads, are usually very tight. All of these factors and more affect transition in part because I have a very unique, strategic job that I how trading works and it’s fascinating. I gravitate toward the aspects of helped to create. And that links back to Evergreen,” he explains. the market that are not well understood and are waiting for someone to put some context around. It’s a significant intellectual challenge “The work that I did with (founding faculty member) Beryl Crowe, understanding what’s going on and equally hard to explain it.” Jeanne Hahn and other Evergreen faculty helped me change the way I think. It was a constant questioning, probing, challenging dynamic. Redfearn “never would have guessed” that he’d end up working for one So I always question my conclusions and beliefs and never get too Brett Redfearn ’87 brings an Evergreen of the biggest firms on Wall Street. He grew up in Delaware, the son of comfortable with any one answer. If you are too married to one idea approach to Wall Street a successful attorney who wanted him to become a lawyer himself—a or belief, eventually you’re wrong. That may be the most important career path Redfearn resisted. “After one year at college, I found out I attribute that’s kept me thinking and staying fresh in a world that’s was not into the ‘traditional’ college experience,” he explains. So he always changing. There really are no definitive answers…for long.” took off to travel around the world with his guitar. As anyone who has a bank account or a 401(k) knows, the markets “Some of the most interesting people I met went to this place called of the past few years have been some of the most volatile in history. Evergreen,” he remembers. “At the end of that year of exploration, Redfearn’s job is to help figure out the market micro-structure aspect I was planning either to go to India and continue my journey, or go of this, which he says is in part driven by the incredible speed of back to college. The fact that I kept running into these great people today’s electronic trading. He then explains new market developments, from Evergreen was a sign telling me where to go.” including regulatory changes, to clients, traders and money managers. He says “one of the most meaningful aspects of my job is working with At Evergreen, he was an organizer for the Washington Public Interest exchanges and regulators to review and develop policies that will help Research Group (known better as WashPIRG) in the fight against ensure that markets are fair and orderly.” In that respect, Redfearn also nuclear waste disposal at the Hanford site, and created his own academic serves on the Board of Directors of BATS Global Markets, a relatively program around lobbying the legislature on the issue. After graduating, new and growing stock exchange. Redfearn earned his master’s degree from The New School for Social Research in New York. He began his career doing public sector He understands that many people outside of Wall Street don’t have economic development work with the Port Authority of New York much trust right now in the financial industry. “Of course, I’ve had and New Jersey. to ask the question: Am I adding value primarily to my bank account and my firm or am I also contributing to the integrity of the industry After a new political appointee was put in charge of the Port Authority, in which I’m operating? The answer is: I have a normative approach where Redfearn had been working as part of a public planning process to everything that I do and couldn’t do this if I doubted that my values for infrastructure and transportation projects in the region, the whole and ethics were fully intact and integral to the advice and analysis office was disbanded. He figures he’s one of the few people in his industry I provide.” that got into finance in part because they were laid off from a public sector job. Redfearn was working on the 54th floor of the World Trade Center during the 1993 terrorist attack, and worked just a block away from “At that time, the public sector was either cutting jobs or cutting the World Trade Center at the American Stock Exchange on 9-11. budgets, so I took an interview with the American Stock Exchange for After experiencing two terrorist attacks, there’s a constant awareness a planning and strategy job in the research department,” he says. “I was that another possible event could occur near his workplace or home. good at research because of my education, and studying market dynamics Nonetheless, he has no plans to leave New York City and no imminent was something I turned out to have a knack for.” plans to exit the world of financial services. He says “Now more than ever we need a little bit of Evergreen in the business world”—one more reason that he remains committed to his work and to helping re-envision how the financial world works.

“At the end of that year of exploration, I was planning either to go to India and continue my journey, or go back to college. The fact that I kept running into these great people from Evergreen was a sign telling me where to go.”

— Brett Redfearn

SpringSpring 20122012 || 2323 One graduate’s love of water may someday benefit us all. G By Carolyn Shea

24 || SpringSpring 20122012 Cindy Peyser Safronoff on top of the world during her climb to the summit of Mount Rainier, which she reached on her first attempt. Photo courtesy of Cindy Peyser Safronoff

SpringSpring 20122012 || 2525

Ex-Geoduck Shares Love and Lessons of Basketball

By Carolyn Shea

The game of basketball, it’s been said, is a good metaphor for life: the ups and downs, the challenges and rebounds, the victories and losses. Jackie Robinson ’02 knows this better than most.

Robinson, the head girl’s basketball coach at Olympia’s River Ridge High School, has been involved in the sport most Tof his life. Since “the minute I could pick up the ball,” he notes, which was at the age of 5 years old. Basketball was one of the few activities available to him during his childhood and he was good at it. “That’s all we could do in a small town,” says the former Geoduck, who grew up south of Mobile, Ala., in Grand Bay, population 3,400.

But more than that, being on the court represented an escape for him. “The world stopped once I started playing,” he says. “That was my therapeutic activity. The problems were still there, but for the time being, they went away. I would shoot and play for hours and hours. Sometimes I’d be at it for eight to ten hours. The time would just fly by.”

Another big appeal was the “team building,” says Robinson, the father of two (who is not named after the legendary Major League Baseball player, but after his own father, who is). “For me personally, the togetherness and the connections were important.”

In the 7th grade, Robinson started playing competitively, but he also started hanging out with a bad crowd. “I wasn’t the perfect kid,” he says.” Fortunately, he had a coach who cared enough about him to take the time and effort to counsel the teenager. “He told me how important I was and what I was capable of doing. He told me I was making poor choices and he basically stopped me in my tracks.”

As a result of that coach’s guidance and the guidance of other coaches he had the chance to play for over the ensuing years—as well as some caring uncles and his own propensity for self-examination and asking lots ofquestions—Robinson stayed on course and became the first member of his family to graduate from college.

26 || SpringSpring 20122012 It wasn’t always a straight course: By the time he got to Evergreen, he had playing, I started coaching youth basketball. It was cool. I like kids so it was already “bounced around” a bit, having been to two other colleges, both pretty fun.” Having grown up with four sisters, he was certainly prepared in Mississippi. But he was figuring it out along the way. When he started when he returned to Olympia to serve as an assistant coach for the girl’s school, he was set on majoring in sports management. He wanted to be basketball team at Timberline High School. sports agent. He ended up also studying social work because of some of the earlier experiences he had had, including counseling young relatives and He stayed with the Timberline team for five seasons before moving to peers. “I’d been doing that since I was a kid with my cousins to get them River Ridge last August and becoming a first-time head coach for the to stay out of trouble and I mentored kids in high school,” he says. “It all Hawks, who finished 2011-12 as regular season co-champions of the 2A started when my coach and my uncles reached out to me.” Evergreen Conference.

At Evergreen, he worked for First Peoples Advising Services, helping When the season ends, Robinson says he can often be found playing pick- students of color achieve their academic and personal goals. He also did up basketball and “catching up on what I didn’t do during the season, all the an independent contract working with troubled youth in two of the state’s stuff that gets neglected like the yard work.” On top of that, he’s also been juvenile correction facilities: Green Hill School in Chehalis and Maple counselor for the past four years at Behavioral Health Resources, Thurston Lane School in Centralia. County’s primary mental health service provider. He works with “kids who have problems at home” and tries “to get them back on track,” he says. “We’d read, talk about life experiences. I tried to be a positive role model and help out any way I could,” he says. “I was modeling what I saw as a Robinson says his greatest friends and advisors are older people. “I feel like youth and giving back.” I gain wisdom from them. I learn. I might play basketball with the younger crowd, but that’s where it stops. With older people, it’s like sitting down At the same time, the six-foot-four upperclassman was an important and talking on the porch, sipping lemonade with an uncle telling what member of Evergreen’s men’s basketball team, playing two seasons for to do and what not to do.” He continues to seek the advice of “everyone the Geoducks. In 2000-01, he appeared in 30 games, starting 26 and that’s ever coached me,” as well as the counsel of his wife Kelci’s father, averaging 8.8 points per game. He led the team in free throw shooting that George Karl, the former Seattle SuperSonics coach and current coach of the year, making 77 of 93. “He was a big contributor,” says Chris Thompson, Denver Nuggets. “I talk to them all the time. They always give me insights.” Geoducks sports information director. But his fondness for kids remains, as well as his desire to help them along. Robinson also contributed to the success of the 2001-02 team, which earned He often brings the youths he’s working with back to Evergreen to tour the the college’s first appearance in the National Association of Intercollegiate campus and show them what’s possible. “Some kids never get a chance to Athletics tournament, winning the Cascade Conference championship. step on a college campus. I figure if you don’t have a vision to go to college, “In 2001-02, when Evergreen won the conference title, he appeared in 33 you probably won’t. I try to give them that.” games, averaging 6.7 points per game,” says Thompson, adding that the former all-conference forward “was a role-player” for the team. When he’s with his team, he has a vision for his players, too. More than anything, he says, “I want the players to have fun. The thing that would After graduating, Robinson played basketball professionally for several make me most sad is if a kid came back to me and said they didn’t have fun. teams in Switzerland and Germany over a two-year period, where he was “a That would be the most disappointing to me. I want them to have fun being guard and a forward and wherever I was needed,” he says. “After I got done part of a team and learning basic life skills though playing basketball.”

In his first year as head coach, Jackie Robinson led the River Ridge High School Hawks girls basketball team to a 17-8 record and regular season co-championship of the 2A Evergreen conference. Photo: Riley Shiery

SpringSpring 20122012 || 2727 what do you love?

No matter how long you lived in the South Sound (and nearly half of our alumni still do), 01 you encountered something that endeared you to Evergreen and its environs. On our 40th anniversary, we’re celebrating 40 of the best things around. Maybe some of your favorites are included.

1 Your Favorite Faculty Everyone has a faculty member who inspired you or changed the whole direction of your studies…and your life. Take a minute and remember him or her.

2 Toys, Tools, Technology Did you film a movie? Create a costume? Design your own video game? Make a “controlled” explosion? Between Media Loan, the Lab Stores, the Costume Shop, the DIS, the TV 02 Studio (now the CCAM) and Photoland, you can get ahold of pretty much anything you need to create the craziest things you can imagine.

07 3 Local Shops Olympia’s well-supported emporiums are fiercely independent—to borrow the tagline of Last Word Books, one downtown favorite started by four Greeners. Who among us hasn’t loved and patronized such past and present institutions of 04 06 community commerce as Yardbirds, Rainy Day Records, Radiance Herbs, Archibald Sisters, Traditions, Olympic Outfitters, Orca Books and too many others to name? Not only do we buy from the locals; we create them!

4 Graduation From the costumes to the music, the crowds pack onto Red Square for what seems like a family reunion. We trade formal ritual for creative expression, and it’s the proudest time of the year.

5 Seminar It’s one continuous conversation that grows into an exchange of ideas, experiences and stories with people of all ages and from all walks of life. And yes, 09 for Greeners, “seminar” will always be a verb. 6 Super Saturday For 30 years Super Saturday marked the beginning of summer in Olympia and the end of the academic year at Evergreen. Part arts and crafts fair, part music festival, part community service fair and part alumni and community gathering, the college retired the event in 2009 in the face of state budget cuts. But the college continues to bring the community to campus with speakers, performances, art exhibits, and events highlighting Evergreen’s teaching and learning, including an annual Science 05 Carnival that draws thousands of K-12 students. 13 28 | Spring 2012 08

04

7 The Great Outdoors Sure, you need rain gear 10 months of the year, but what other place could match 10 the natural wonders of western Washington? From the 1000-acre campus and saltwater beach to program 06 adventures on sailboats, treks to Mt. Rainier, research projects in the Nisqually wildlife refuge, vistas of Mt. Saint Helens (before and after the eruptions), walks through the ancient rainforests of Olympic National Park or just a fun day at the ocean, the sights, sounds 03 and scents of nature are a memorable part of almost every Evergreen experience.

8 It's the Water Fluid, flexible, changing and adaptively permeable. Whether your memory is of the unofficial and (largely) fabled nude beach swims or back country hiking along the Washington Coast or Puget Sound, generations of Greeners have also come to define themselves as protectors of water and contented adherents to hydrophilia. 01 9 Procession of the Species If you build it, sew it, paint it, wear it…they will come. It’s Washington state’s largest annual Earth Day celebration, “created by the community for the community to celebrate our relationships with each other and with the natural world.”

10 Artswalk A different kind of procession, where 02 people crowd the downtown sidewalks discovering paintings and plays, sculptures and satirists, from 05 hundreds of artists showing their work.

11 Coffee Think Seattle is the world coffee capital? Think again. Our Batdorf & Bronson gives the big guys a run (have you tried the Greener Blend?), plus we’ve got Dancing Goats, New Moon, Raven’s Brew, Caffe Vita and Olympia Coffee Roasting Co., just to name a few. 11

12 Beer Thinking Olympia? You probably think beer. It’s the water and a lot more (or a lot less, depending on your taste). While the Olympia Brewery in Tumwater closed its doors in 2003, Olympia still supports craft and microbrewery beer with Fish Brewing Company and McMenamins Spar Café. Of course, you may have ( ) tipped a beer or two elsewhere in Olympia as well. 12 13 &18

13 Downtown We love the nightlife, we’ve got to boogie…The Reef is gone, but you can chow down at Quality Burrito, head over to the Eastside, Jake’s, the 06 4th Ave. Tavern, or the BroHo (you might be surprised that this former biker bar is now a Greener hot spot).

Photos by Evergreen Photo Services, Shauna Bittle '98 and Riley Shiery. Historic photos courtesy of The Evergreen State College Archives. 09 Spring 2012 | 29 19 21

14 Bike Shop If you know your D-mount front derailleur from your Motion Control Compression Damper there is a good chance you learned it from Evergreen's Bike Shop, where friendly student helpers (aka saints) help you understand just how much there is to know, and ensure that you keep rolling with minimum bumps in the road.

20 15 Food Co-ops OK, we know of some Greeners who affectionately call the Olympia Food Co-op the hippie mart, but seriously there is nowhere better for (non-transmogrified, non-GMO, keep your pesticides) real food—food that is actually the food it looks like. Peace out, Sergeant Pepper! They can keep their polydimethylsiloxane and hydrogenated oils. We eat better! 16 16 Undergraduate Research From hydrogen fuel cells to the music of Phillip Glass, bacteriophages that may eliminate E.coli from the food system, or rural 14 communities in a global perspective—come up with a good enough proposal, and you’ll be knee deep in research before you know it. And before grad school.

17 Bus Your mobile seminar and freedom train to downtown. With a record 5.3 million trips taken in 2011, Intercity Transit takes Greeners where they need to go. No wonder it’s been named best mid-sized transit system in the U.S.

18 Week 10 One big mentally challenging potluck, 18 two parts panic, one part preparation, with a side of consciousness expansion.

19 Potlucks No one is judging your vegan carrot 23 pumpkin seed loaf with kale-tofu spread. Really. 20 KAOS (Kicking Ass Olympia Style) Broadcasting from campus since January 1, 1973. A friendly daily dose of complex random phenomena and creativity, broadcast with love, thought and solidarity.

24 21 Hungry? Goop is not optional at the original Eagan’s (thanks, Big Tom!), your pizza choice can still start an argument (are you Old School or Dirty Dave’s? Vic’s or Pizza Time?), Ben Moore’s offers hot food and cool jazz, and if you want Thai? Just walk a block and you’ll find some.

Photos by Evergreen Photo Services, Shauna Bittle '98 and Riley Shiery, except salmon spawn by Robert Koopmans for istockphoto, and Geoduck Lady courtesy of Denny Peterson. 30 | Spring 2012 17 25 22 20

22 Artesian Well Are there or aren’t there Artesians? Do you think one will ever be found? If so, they’ll probably be enjoying the new minipark around Olympia’s downtown artesian well, sipping the coolest, cleanest water anywhere. 24 23 The Music Scene It started long before Kurt Cobain 23 rented a house on Pear St. and Nirvana played gigs in K dorm. Riot Grrrls Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney got their start here, Carrie Brownstein ‘98 is touring with her new band Wild Flag. YouTubers loved “Chocolate Rain” by Adam Bahner '04 aka Tay Zonday; so did Weezer (check out their Pork and Beans video). Gretchen Christopher ’82, of The Fleetwoods, is still hitting the charts. Dub Narcotic's Calvin Johnson '85, 21 Mirah '96, Real Estate's Martin Courtney ’08 and soprano Cyndia Sieden '76 are all Greeners. With K Records and Kill Rock Stars, all-ages venues, and a thriving bluegrass and folk scene, Olympia remains a destination for music lovers everywhere.

24 The Geoduck Our favorite bivalve is frequently noted as one of the nation’s most unusual (craziest? Most bizarre?) college mascots, and it's delicious, too! Dig Deep, Geoducks. 22

25 Olympia Film Society Since 1980, the Capitol Theater has brought us both classic and cutting edge films, from Warhol’s Frankenstein (in 3-D) to The Iron Lady, with a dose of the Muppets. The annual Olympia 25 Film Festival has been a favorite event since 1983, a 10-day around-the-clock extravaganza of films, special performances, discussion panels and workshops. Grab your tamari spritzed popcorn and kombucha, sit back in your vintage 1924 seat, and enjoy the show!

26 GRuB Greeners Kim Gaffi ’97 and Blue Peetz ’95 started GRuB (Garden-Raised Bounty) to help local 19 teens and community members get their hands in 27 the dirt and truly connect with their food and their environment. Thirteen years later, they’re still growing healthy food, people and communities.

27 Salmon Runs The first time you saw salmon spawn? Maybe during your time in Olympia—from the 4th Ave. bridge,Tumwater Falls, along the McLane Creek Nature Trail or the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail. There’s a certain thrill to seeing a moving blanket of undulating color beneath the glassy surface or a spectacular leap to clear a rapid or falls. It’s no wonder that salmon are 26 an icon of the Pacific Northwest.

Spring 2012 | 31 40 32 38

28 Farmers Market A creative, vibrant gathering space that supports the local community. Olympia's market provides space for Greener-owned organic farmers to sell fruits and veggies, flowers and honey. Grab your Curry In A Hurry, find a spot on the benches and enjoy the music. Or sample some super fresh 28 fruit and stock up on tie-dyed socks. 29 Organic Farm Since 1972, hope has grown at Evergreen’s organic farm, where students and community members explore ways to feed the planet without compromising on ethics or the environment. The great agricultural experiment (that recently featured a Sarah Palin scarecrow) includes community gardens, compost and Biodiesel facilities, 33 greenhouses and more, and this year added the new Sustainable Agriculture Lab building.

30 Drums on Red Square Nothing welcomes the 30 inexorable return of spring like an Evergreen drum circle, reminiscent both of the hammering of the last winter rains or the feel-good waves of a summer sunlight flash mob rushing the happy centers of the soul. Whether glad or anxious, in the mood for frenetic or easy drumming, one is welcomed and challenged to simply enter the circle.

31 Hilltop Home to Evergreen’s Tacoma Program, “The Hill” is an urban community rich in diversity and often maligned in the media. It hosts many cultures, languages, restaurants, churches, views and people 31 of all classes and incomes. Today, it is experiencing renewed development and vitalization, in part because of the Tacoma program’s presence and 32 commitment to the community. 32 Flora Fauna Fungi Are you a dendrologist? Mycologist? Pomologist? Malacologist? Phytochemist? 29 Zoologist? Ichthyologist? Here you can be one or all of them.

33 Myths You heard it through the grapevine, right? Or witnessed it firsthand, so you can testify? Those shadowy Evergreen legends just won’t go away. Like the one about Happy Land, located in the bowels of the CAB: a place to escape, a shrine brimming with art, experiments, sundry memorials and paraphernalia. 35 Bob the Orb? A humungous metal sphere that floats mysteriously through the campus woods. And the poltergeists roaming our hallowed halls, which— haven’t you heard?—were originally designed as a prison instead of an institution of higher learning. Would we lie to you?

32 | Spring 2012 34

32

34 The Other Residence Halls It was the house on your block with five or more Greeners living there at any given time. It was where you could find the best potlucks, the coolest local music, and a couch to crash on when you needed it. The locations may change, but Greener houses are always home. 35 Mud Bay Run One of the most grueling 29 39 500-meter dashes on earth, this ritual graduation race across Mud Bay at low tide is a mere two hours before the big ceremony. Duct-tape your shoes so you don’t lose them!

36 Capitol Whether you’ve interned or advocated for a cause there, run a state agency or been elected 33 to represent your district, Evergreen’s “capitol” location is a big part of the Evergreen experience.

37 Bigelow House The oldest standing home in Olympia was built in the late 1850s by Daniel and 34 Ann Bigelow. Activists of their day, they were strong proponents of public education, rights for people of color, women’s suffrage and temperance.

38 Murals Star Wars and superheroes, orcas and geoducks, a tribute to peace in Palestine—our city and campus murals tell the story of who we are, who we were, and who we hope to become. This is what happens when both professional and amateur artists have safe space to express themselves.

39 Soccer Since the ‘80s, varsity sports have been a part of campus life, and it all started with soccer. From pickup games in the early days to 2004, when our teams were nationally ranked, and the men reached the third round of the NAIA National Championships, we have 38 gravitated towards the “other” football. Be sure to catch former Geoduck Joey Gjertsen ’05 in his third year with Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes.

40 Longhouse Education & Cultural Center For more than a decade, the mission of the "House of Welcome" has been to promote indigenous arts and cultures. 36 With Evergreen’s focus on the liberal arts, we define ourselves through our connections to the great thinkers, and through traditions, finding value, creativity, and innovation in the gifts of many disciplines, relevant to the past, to our present, and to our collective future. 35

Photos by Evergreen Photo Services except: #28 illustration (pg 38) by Nikki McClure from her book To Market, To Market; Bob the Orb by Seth Long from CPJ Nov. 1993; 2008 Mud Races (pg 39) by Jon Huey '06. 40 Spring 2012 | 33 News & Notes & Notes

The Natural History Collections at Evergreen are full of life and learning. n a busy Wednesday afternoon, undergraduate fellows fill a large black work table with tray after tray of bird specimens for an up- coming class. A veritable flock passes by: the iridescent green head and yellow beak of a male mallard; a pileated woodpecker with its red pompadour; an orange-breasted robin. Though lacking the animated poses of popular taxidermy, each bird “skin” is preserved oto look as natural as possible—even when lying flat on a tray. “I like to think of them as in the yoga plank position,” student curator Brendon Boudinot quips.

Evergreen’s Natural History Collections include a “dry” zoology section with 9,000 insects, hundreds of mammals, and 2,000 birds, as well as countless skeletons, shells and more; a “wet” collection with marine invertebrates, arthropods, fish, amphibians and reptiles; and an herbarium with over 4,000 specimens of plants, lichens, fungi and algae. The focus is on specimens from Washington and Oregon.

In the beginning… Collections, Field Study & Science In 1972, faculty member and ornithologist “Al Wiedemann and I taught The Nature of Steve Herman worked with Sherburne Natural History in winter then Field Natural “Jerry” Cook, Jr. (then Science Program History in spring,” Herman explains. “We’d Coordinator), to establish a space with the spend 24 days traveling from the Oregon storage and displays needed to begin what dunes to the Redwoods, the Hart Mountain would eventually become the Evergreen National Antelope Refuge and the Malheur Natural History Collections. Evergreen stu- National Wildlife Refuge and hit the John dent Peter Lawson prepared the first bird Day Fossil Beds on the way home.” Today, specimen, a Virgina rail, in October. in addition to exploring the Pacific Coast, Evergreen natural history field studies On a sunny March day in 2012, Herman include trips to the tropics, the Gulf Coast checked an inventory list, removed the and southwestern deserts. cover from a gray steel cabinet, located that bird and held it up for inspection. “This is it,” he said. “The collections are critical to Evergreen’s ongoing commitment to teaching natural history and supporting field studies,” says botanist, For Herman, every drawer, every bird, is a story about a student, faculty member and curator of the herbarium Frederica Bowcutt. a place, a time and an experience in teaching and learning about “Students need to learn how to use collections to support field identi- nature. For him, the past and the present are linked, not just by the fication and to document their findings.” specimens in the collection, but also by the friendships he maintains with many of his students. “See this yellow-headed blackbird?” he Students have played a critical role both in building the collections and in asks. “Jerry Scoville did this one when he was a student in 1980, and documenting biodiversity, in partnership with faculty, other institutions, I’m going camping with him tonight.” agencies and conservation groups, Bowcutt explains. One of their current collaborative projects is a Field Guide to the Plants of the South Puget Above: Steve Herman with specimens from the Natural History Collections. Opposite page, top center: Students study large osprey talons. Sound Prairies with more than 150 botanical illustrations by students. Photos: Shauna Bittle '98 and Riley Shiery.

1973 1974 1976 Geoff Heywood, Beaverton, Ore., is a clinical Wilhelmina (Willi) Savenye, Tempe, Ariz., is a Fern (Barbara) Van Maren, Boise, Idaho, research associate with Sanofi, a French professor of educational technology at Arizona embarked on a new career in her 40s when pharmaceutical company. He monitors clinical State University, where she earned her M.Ed. she joined the Peace Corps and spent two trials in oncology, cardiovascular disease, and Ph.D. degrees. She and her husband Joe, years in Sri Lanka as an English teacher. Since diabetes and multiple sclerosis. A registered a chemistry professor, enjoy the great outdoors: then, she’s taught Mexican workers and nurse specializing in cardiology for 31 years, kayaking, cross-country skiing, hiking and refugees from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe he has two daughters, Megan and Marissa. camping. Willi tells us, “I work with col- and the Middle East. She is an English as a

otes leagues who also attended Evergreen and we Second Language teacher and coordinator at John McCombs, Ninilchik, Alaska, is a self- always miss Evergreen!” the College of Western Idaho. employed commercial fisherman in Cook Inlet and also works for Ninilchik School. 1975 Leslie Kennedy, Liestal, Switzerland, is studying n He and his wife Deidre have two children, for a Master of Arts degree in visual com- David James, Meriden, Conn., has been a Maureen and Leslie. munication and iconic research at the Visual tool and die maker for 33 years with Nucap Inc. Communication Institute/The Basel School of in Watertown, Conn. Married with five children, Terry Oliver, Vancouver, is chief technology Design in Switzerland. he is vice president of the Quinnipiac Water- innovation officer for the Bonneville Power shed Association. Administration in Portland, Oregon. 1978 Jeffrey Anders, Portland, Ore., is vice president of Oregon Spice Company, a supplier of herbs, spices and custom-blended seasonings to food manufacturers and food service distributors. class

34 | Spring 2012 News & Notes

Current space expands visibility and use Today, Bowcutt says, more faculty members teach natural history than ever. And thanks to persistent faculty and staff advocacy for a centralized, non-toxic collections facility, the college opened a suite of climate-controlled work, storage and display spaces on the ground floor of Lab I, with neighboring microscopy labs, in 2007.

“I’m thrilled with the condition of the collection,” Herman exclaimed to student curator Theresa Skiba on a recent visit. “You’re doing a wonderful job!”

The students share that enthusiasm. “We’ve revolutionized the entomology collection and it’s now databased and maintained at international museum caliber,” Boudinot says with pride.

Today, the collections are in almost constant use, serving programs ranging from science to art, faculty members, students, researchers and the community. “It is hard work building collections,” observed evolutionary biolo- gist and faculty member Heather Heying. “Steve, Al and others did it out of love of nature and teaching and students with whom they were in the field for years and years. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.”

For more information on the collections, visit http://blogs.evergreen.edu/nhcattesc/about Delphinium nuttallianum by senior Kate McSorley '12.

Kathleen Clark, Los Angeles, Calif., earned Peter Nielsen, Missoula, Mont., worked for going into business to produce an invention her MFA from the University of California, the Clark Fork Coalition after earning his called the Sit ‘n’ Stroll Carseat Stroller, a Irvine, and spent many years as an editorial Master of Environmental Science degree at combination child’s safety car seat and photography director. She currently works as the University of Montana. He is now an stroller, he developed his present company, an independent curator, professional environmental health administrator Hunter Creek Design, to create custom photography consultant and teacher for Missoula County, supervising the solutions for personal and commercial design and practicing artist. Her blog can local water quality district. His focus challenges. be found at kathleenclarkexposed. in recent years has been the removal wordpress.com. of the Milltown Dam and cleanup Russell Flemming, Luxemburg, Wis., earned of the federal Superfund site in the a Master in Health Care Administration degree Nancy (Jones) Luenn, Oak Harbor, Milltown Reservoir. He is married at the University of Washington in 1990 and has her art quilt, “Buckskin Gulch,” in with two sons and would love to graduated from the U.S. Army’s Command the Deep Spaces textile and mixed hear from former classmates! and General Staff College in 1998. He retired media exhibit, which opened in 2011 as a colonel from the Army Medical Depart- in Tillamook, Ore., and has been 1979 ment after 30 years. Currently a certified shown at the Edmonds Conference run-walk coach with the Road Runners Club Justin Dick, Evergreen, Colo., worked Center and the Sam Houston University of America, he qualified for the 2012 Boston in the film production industry in Museum in Huntsville, Texas. It will Marathon and finished third in his division at New York City after leaving Ever- be on display at the La Conner Quilt the Door County Fall 50-mile Ultra Marathon. green, then traveled the world with & Textile Museum from March 28 to a long stay in Nepal before moving June 24, 2012. Learn more at to Denver to work for the Denver www.nancyluenn.com. Submit a Class Note for the fall issue at Center for the Performing Arts. After "Buckskin Gulch" quilt, by Nancy Luenn '78 www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform

Spring 2012 | 35 News & Notes Ray Named State Teacher of the Year

Mark Ray ’87, a teacher librarian at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Ray will now be considered for national Teacher of the Year, which was named Washington’s 2012 Teacher of the Year at an awards is awarded by the Council of Chief State School Officers. President ceremony October 3 at the Experience Music Project/Science Obama will announce the winner in a special ceremony at the White Fiction Museum in Seattle. Ray was chosen from nine regional finalists. House in the spring. Program sponsors PEMCO Insurance, SMART Technologies and Saxton Bradley, Inc. each donated cash awards, technology prizes “Mark and the 2012 Teachers of the Year represent our very best,” said and scholarships for classroom improvements for Ray and the State Superintendent Randy Dorn. “They are highly skilled and they Regional Teachers of the Year. have high standards for their kids, but they also know that relationships count and that great teaching happens one kid at a time.” Nearly 20 years into his career as a teacher librarian, he’s spent most of them in the same district where his father taught and his mother served lunch. Parents and colleagues describe Ray as "transformational" and credit his vision and enthusiasm Other Honors for Evergreen Teachers for the success of projects as varied Amada Lang ’94, MiT ’05, an art teacher at Horizons as redesigning classroom assess- Elementary School in Lacey, was named Washington state’s ment to igniting an enthusiasm for Elementary Art Educator of the Year by the Washington research in the student body. In State Art Education Association. In her seventh year of addition to his work in the library teaching, Lang is known for her enthusiasm and creativity and classrooms, Ray also coaches and connecting with students of different ages through a tennis at Skyview, where his nation- variety of art forms that link to other classroom curriculum. ally recognized “no cut” program “Amada is dedicated to her students and her craft as a welcomes students of all abilities. teacher,” Horizons principal Tim Fries told The Olympian. “She is constantly and actively learning and trying to grow “Every year, I can’t wait to see what new techniques he has come stronger as a teacher.” up with to help kids understand research,” said colleague Brenda McKinney. “From puppets to amazing Powerpoint skills, from in KCTS Channel 9 recognized the Lincoln Center at Tacoma’s depth knowledge to saying it exactly how it is, Mark uses the stage Lincoln High School with one of the statewide 20th Annual of his media center to let kids know that research is accessible.” Golden Apple Awards. The Center is one of two programs honored for making a positive difference in Washington Ray believes passionately that teachers must begin stepping into state education in grades pre-K-12. Nathan Gibbs more leadership roles and embrace the risk of trying something new Bowling MiT ’06, Travis Davio MiT ’06, and Hannah if they are to meet the educational imperative of educating a new type Pratt, MiT ’07 all teach in Lincoln Center, an extended-day of student and create a truly 21st century school system. His essay program where students, families, community and staff “Save the children by fighting ‘truthiness,’” about the importance of dedicate themselves to closing the achievement gap for teaching students the skills to navigate research in the 21st century, their racially diverse, low-income student population. was published by The Seattle Times on October 21.

Mark Ray Photo: Washington OSPI.

Richard H. McClure, Jr., Trout Lake, recently Victoria Lisi, Loveland, Colo., is an artist, Berthold (Craig) Olson, Mount Shasta, Calif., completed 30 years of public service as an teacher and illustrator. She has produced earned his MSW degree at the University of archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service. He more than 100 book Washington. He worked as a nurse’s aide and works as a Heritage Program manager and covers, including two an activities director at an adult day health tribal relations liaison in Vancouver. fan Hugo Award-winning center before entering Shasta Abbey, a science fiction covers, Buddhist monastery in Mount Shasta. 1980 and illustrated a dozen children’s picture books. Chris Stegman, Olympia, worked for Behavioral Karen (Rogers) LaVerne, Bellingham, She published Vibrant Health Resources, Senior Services for South worked as a paralegal specializing in workers’ Children’s Portraits: Sound and the Washington State Employment compensation for 22 years before creating Painting Beautiful Hair Security Department before becoming co-owner her own business, Work Injury Advocates, to and Skin Tones with of Puget Painting & Home Repairs, a general represent injured workers. She says, “I know Oils (North Light Books, contracting business. He sings in a barbershop being a Greener gave me the urge and the 2010) and is a contributing artist in Painter’s quartet, scuba dives and is politically active gumption to leave my cozy nest, and I am Quick Reference: Birds & Butterflies (North with the newly formed Justice Party. happier than I have ever been in my work. Light Books, 2008). Victoria taught illustration Do what you love.” at Western Connecticut State University and 1981 now teaches art at Aims Community College in Loveland. Carol Ellick, Norman, Okla., earned her Master in Education degree from Chapman University and served as an instructor in Native American Submit a Class Note for the spring issue at studies at the University of Oklahoma. Currently www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform director of Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants in Norman, she has

36 | Spring 2012 News & Notes

Alumna Receives Presidential Citizens Medal President Barack Obama presents Janice Langbehn, of Lacey, Washington, the 2011 Presidential Citizens Medal, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, recognizing her efforts to ensure all Americans are treated equally. (Astrid Riecken/MCT)

In February 2007, Janice Langbehn MPA’95, her partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, and their three children traveled to Miami for a cruise. Instead, Langbehn and the children found themselves trapped in a Miami hospital emergency room, trying desperately to gain access to Pond, who had suffered a brain aneurysm while on the ship. Although they had a signed power of attorney, the family was kept from Pond, who would later die alone.

After her harrowing experience in Miami, Langbehn wanted to ensure no other family would have to go through what she and her family did. With the help of Lambda Legal and GLAAD, she filed a federal lawsuit and worked to get her story out to the nation. President Obama personally apologized to her for the way she and her family were treated, and went on to issue new rules requiring hospitals to extend visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners, which went into effect in January 2011 for any hospital receiving federal Medicare or Medicaid funds.

In October 2011, Langbehn, who lives with their children in Lacey, was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, in a ceremony at the White House, where President Barack Obama personally thanked her for “answering the call of service.”

“This year’s recipients of the Citizens Medal come from different backgrounds, but they share a commitment to a cause greater than themselves,” said President Obama. “They exemplify the best of what it means to be an American, and I am honored to be able to offer them a small token of our appreciation.”

Langbehn was one of 13 recipients chosen from more than 6,000 public nominations for the medal, receiving it “for her efforts to ensure all Americans are treated equally.” presented at conferences 1983 1986 in Greece, Australia, Karen Laing, Sacramento, Calif., earned her Patricia M. “Trish” Ennis, Wheat Ridge, Colo., New Zealand and Japan, MS degree in ecology at the University of was named one of “100 Women—Making a and co-authored The California, Davis. After spending 27 years Difference in Safety” by the American Society Anthropology Graduate’s in Alaska, where she worked for many years of Safety Engineers’ Women in Safety Engi- Guide: From Student as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife neering Common Interest Group. A senior to a Career (Left Coast Service, she moved to Sacramento to be- risk control consultant with the Willis Group, Press, 2011). Her daugh- come a regional coordinator for the agency’s Trish previously served as the Denver Zoolog- ter, Emily Ellick-Flettre, National Wildlife Refuge System Inventory ical Foundation’s first workplace safety direc- graduated from Ever- and Monitoring Program. tor. She serves on the Institutional Biosafety green in 2010. Committee for the University of Colorado 1985 and is a member of the City of Wheat Ridge 1982 Parks & Recreation Commission. Michael (Mike) Gudyka, Snohomish, earned Jana F. (Janice F. Rathbun) Socha, Tucson, his Master of Software Engineering degree Douglas Palenshus, Issaquah, earned his Ariz., is owner, artist and creative director of from Seattle University last June and works Master of Environmental Science degree at Jana’s Mystic Light Photography, focusing on as a senior software development engineer Oklahoma State University. He is a community providing photo images for small business with Microsoft in Redmond. owners and supporting local entrepreneurial outreach coordinator with the Water Quality networking community. She printed her Program of the Washington State Department second annual fine art nature photography of Ecology’s Northwest Regional Office in calendar, “Magic Light,” for 2012. Her work Bellevue. can be seen online at janasocha.com.

Spring 2012 | 37 News & Notes

Photos: Brodie Henry. Opposite page, bottom: Jenny Reed and Brodie Henry volunteered together in Otegen Batyr, Kazakhstan. Photo: Kalkaman Yagudin.

1987 1990 1991 Lawrence J. Faulk (MPA), Steilacoom, was Eve (Hilgenberg) Hammond (MiT’92), Seattle, Cheryl Jones, Upper Darby, Pa., is a counselor appointed to the board of directors of the a multi-arts teacher (drama, music, art and at KeyStone Center, an addiction treatment Salamon Group Inc., a solar energy project dance) at Hawthorne Elementary School, says center in Chester, Pa. company specializing in renewable energy she “is living the dream!” She is on the Seattle power projects. A former Washington state district theatre arts team developing drama Hank Lentfer, Gustavus, Alaska, had his first senator and Boeing executive, Larry is a standards for all grades, and will soon gain book published in September. Inspired by graduate of the Senior Executive Program her national board certification in visual arts. migrating sandhill cranes passing over his for State and Local Government Officials Her family of four gained a new house and a home near Glacier Bay, Faith of Cranes: at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of new dog this summer. Finding Hope and Government. Family in Alaska Justin Pollack, Frisco, Colo., was named (The Mountaineers Janet Rubert, Longview, completed her first adjunct faculty of the year by Colorado Books, 2011) novel and has moved on to the second in a Mountain College, where he teaches anatomy “weaves together trilogy. She recently had an article published and physiology. He earned his ND degree at three parallel about the 1962 Columbus Day Storm and Bastyr and completed training in family practice narratives: the traveled to Ghana with her photographer medicine at the National College of Naturo- plight and beauty son to visit her sponsored child there and to pathic Medicine in Portland before moving to of sandhill cranes, conduct research for her novel. Colorado, to establish his practice. He and his one man’s effort to wife, Kim Nearpass, ND, are cofounders and recover hope amid co-owners of the Mountain-River Naturopathic destructive climate Clinic and Backcountry Herbal Apothecary. change, and the birth of a daughter.”

38 | Spring 2012 News & Notes

Peace Corps volunteer Jenny Reed ’09, In September 2011, her center had often heard other volunteers talk received about $2,000 from USAID about how wonderful their service to remodel the center and buy the is and all the things they had done. needed equipment. Although they had But, she says, “never in my life did I the money for supplies, management think I could be the catalyst to bring wouldn’t dedicate money for labor. a community into action.” Once her Kazakh community heard there was one to do the work, the staff, Twenty Evergreen undergraduate parents and students began volunteering. alumni and six graduate alumni currently serve in the Peace Corps, including Reed, who spent the past “I was surprised to find our dance teacher was not only a talented eighteen months in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, working choreographer, but also skilled in puttying walls,” says Reed. “Our with DPK Didar, a nonprofit youth center. More than 200 Evergreen sports trainer could inset windows and helped paint. Our director held alumni have served as Peace Corps volunteers. meetings with parents addressing their issues, concerns and needs. In a community where every penny is managed and money is in short In January, Evergreen was ranked 10th in the nation in the Peace Corps’ supply, people were donating. Dads were installing light fixtures and 2012 rankings of volunteer-producing colleges and universities in the moms were sewing curtains. Due to the community’s proactive involve- small college category (less than 5,000 undergraduates). Evergreen's ment and commitment to improve the youth center, the project was ranking was up from 11 in 2011. sustainable.”

Reed is not surprised to hear how Unfortunately, in November 2011 all Peace highly Evergreen ranks, and says her Corps volunteers were evacuated from programs and the people she met Kazakhstan because of safety concerns, at the college made her passion although Reed had not experienced for helping people around the problems. She is now back in the U.S., pre- world flourish. While in Kazakh- paring to enter graduate school to pursue stan, she was instrumental in her master’s degree in arts therapy in the helping the youth center’s staff, fall. “I had a wonderful community that parents and students apply for accepted me like a daughter,” she says. grants through the Peace Corps to “I was heartbroken to leave. Only twelve rebuild the crumbling basement months into my service, I had already seen space where they met, and to the difference my presence made on the purchase new sports equipment. community, and found joy in knowing that She also got lots of experience it will continue after I am gone.” improvising new ways to get things done.

E veRGREEN Earns Top Spot on 2012 Peace Corps College Rankings

In addition to writing, Hank manages the 1994 Samuel Loewenberg, Los Angeles, Calif., 4,000-acre Gustavus Forelands Preserve and Karen Goulet, Pablo, Mont., will have two a freelance journalist, is a 2011-12 Nieman is a part-time stay-at-home dad to Linnea, pieces of her mixed media artwork, “Morning Global Health Reporting Fellow at Harvard his 8-year-old daughter with his wife, Anya Sky” and “Island Bird,” exhibited at New York University. He will study neglected factors in Maier, a family practice physician. City’s Museum of Art & Design. The exhibition, global health interventions, foreign aid “Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation, reform and the role of journalism in increasing 1993 Part 3—Contemporary Native North American, accountability. As a foreign correspondent, First Nations and Inuit Art from the Northeast he has traveled throughout Europe, China, Greg Carlson, Philadelphia, Pa., is an assistant Africa and Latin America, and written for professor of neuroscience in psychiatry at the and Southeast,” runs from June 26 to Oct. 21, then will travel throughout publications such as The New York Times, University of Pennsylvania’s Time and Forbes. Perelman School of Medicine. He the U.S. Karen, an enrolled was the lead author of a paper member of the White Earth published in October in the Ojibwe Nation who is also 1995 Proceedings of the National of Métis and Saami-Finn Marcia Swaine, Richmond, Va., published Academy of Sciences on re- descent, holds an MFA in her first book, Who, Put You, On Pause!? search revealing a link between sculpture from the University (Kingdom Publishing Group, 2011), set in genetic risk factors for schizo- of Wisconsin-Madison and the island of Jamaica, West Indies. phrenia and sound-processing an M.Ed. from the University problems in the brain. of Minnesota-Duluth. She teaches at Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Submit a Class Note for the fall issue at Reservation in Montana. "Morning Sky" by Karen Goulet '94 www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform

Spring 2012 | 39 News & Notes

Ty Alexander Cheng got his start dancing after “following a girl,” “My life is successful in a lot of ways because of the things I have his best friend, to a dance tryout during high school in Lake Oswego, overcome and accomplished, but I feel like I have not really Ore., near Portland. Today, Cheng is principal artist in his sixth season reached my success yet,” he says. “It used to be that a lot of my at Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater, with an international resume and motivation came from ‘not failing.’ Now a lot of my motivation reputation. At age 26, he has already performed around the world, in comes from the fear of ‘not trying,’ rather than failing. That defines places as diverse as Spain, Portugal, France, Russia, China, Thailand, my success. It’s when I try.” Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. In addition to his flourishing dance career, he is a student at In just the past year, he has flown with a flock of dance troupes and Evergreen, and credits the college with broadening his perspective producers in the Northwest, working on performances like Euclidean of the artistic role. Space, a production merging pop culture and ballet for the renowned Bumbershoot festival. He also performed with the Whim W’Him “Evergreen forces me to think critically, ask questions, and dive company in Monster at Bumbershoot and in The Mother of Us All deeper into the characters I play on stage,” says Cheng. “Every at Spectrum, where he worked to explore the intricacies of Africa’s year, I say this is the last year of dancing. It pounds your body, and landscape and to evoke the place of humanity’s origin. then makes you aware of every movement. You can’t do this for- ever. This is one of the reasons I wanted to invest in an education.” His most recent work includes dancing in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic Oklahoma! at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in February 2012 Cheng, whose father is African-Chinese and mother is Filipina-Ger- and in a gritty piece on domestic violence, The Beast, at Spectrum man, was awarded Evergreen’s cultural diversity tuition scholarship, this past October. and attends the college’s Tacoma program.

Cheng, who began his professional dance training at the Alvin Ailey “Evergreen was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I found School of Dance is known for his gymnastic ability to defy gravity a lot of things at the college that I did not think I would find,” says and challenge the imagination of audiences. With his lineup of recent Cheng. He especially appreciates Tacoma faculty member, filmmaker productions, many would say Cheng has made it. and sociologist Dr. Gilda Sheppard. “She brings us understanding of sociology with an artistic approach,” he says. “I understand how art From Cheng’s perspective he is just getting started. brings people together.”

1997 1998 1999 Maura Jo Lynch, Meriden, Conn., presented an Jeffrey Railsback, Paso Robles, Calif., and wife Bridget O’Hara and Bryan Freeborn, Celo, update to her work on Third World Feminism Tanya Schouten Railsback ’89, celebrate N.C., are celebrating their 15th wedding at Southern Connecticut State University. A their 11th wedding anniversary this year. anniversary. They live at the Arthur Morgan doula and childbirth educator, Maura has two They own a Farmers Insurance agency. They School, a boarding school “like Evergreen daughters, CaraZen and Acadia. She brings have two children, Chloe and Finn, and are for adolescents,” where Bridget serves as issues of birth advocacy and maternity to involved with the Paso Robles Education Al- admissions coordinator. women’s studies classrooms. She looks back liance, a nonprofit dedicated to raising funds on her time at Evergreen as the most impor- to support local public school programs. 2000 tant, formative years of her academic life. Silvia Burley, Stockton, Calif., chairperson of the Christine Uri, Portland, Ore., was honored California Valley Miwok Tribe (CVMT), attended as an “Up & Coming Lawyer” by the Daily the 2011 White House Tribal Nations Conference Journal of Commerce. An attorney with with President Obama at the U.S. Department Tonkon Torp, she earned her JD, cum laude, of the Interior on Dec. 2. She also attended from Boston College Law School in 2003. She the 2009 conference. The CVMT Tribal Flag, serves as secretary of the board of directors designed by CVMT Council Member Anjelica of Girls Inc. of NW Oregon and as a member Paulk, is now on display at the Smithsonian of the board of advisors for Oregon Women’s National Museum of the American Indian History Consortium. She is a 2010 graduate (NMAI) in Washington D.C. of Leadership Portland.

Silvia Burley '00 (left) with Solicitor Hilary Tompkins, Department of the Interior - Indian Affairs, at the 2011 White House Tribal Nations Conference.

40 | Fall 2011 News & Notes

Recently, Cheng was able to apply some of this perspective in his performance of The Beast, a production focused on the parental transmission of misogyny from father to son. Cheng says this provided a chance to explore the use of art to challenge how society views masculinity and to discuss the mistreatment of women.

“It was a challenging role and a physical role,” says Cheng. “It helped me learn how to interact and communicate a narrative, how to use art to build awareness in a community–much more than being a nice body that can move well.”

“I think dance can reach people on a larger scale than just the entertainment view of it,” he adds. “It was a challenge to go into that dark place every night. I learned what my body could do as a dancer, but it also challenged my views.”

The dance with ideas he exhibits in performance also continues seamlessly in his studies, cross fertilizing the worlds of art and multidisciplinary scholarship. What really drew him to dance was the commitment and dedication to an idea rather than dancing itself. “Why people dance, I don’t know,” he says. “It is one of the ‘un-commonist’ things you can do with your body. If I broke my leg I would still be an artist. For now, I am an artist that communicates what I intend through the medium of dance.”

Wherever he goes in the future, Cheng’s unique perspective and social consciousness (nurtured through performance and studies at Evergreen) will go with him. He plans to finish his bachelor’s degree, earn a master’s degree in audio engineering, and “to only fear, the fear of not trying.”

Spectrum Dance Theater principal dancer Ty Cheng is known for his ability to defy gravity, as seen in this rehearsal with company member Vincent Michael Lopez. Photo: Jennifer Richard

Josh Gaydos (MiT’06), Bonney Lake, teaches 2002 2003 high school social studies in the Sumner Steven Gill (MPA’04), Olympia, is administrator Sara Black, Yellow Springs, Ohio, earned School District and is a member of The for the Veteran Services Division of the Wash- her MFA from the University of Chicago in Burren Boys, an evocative group drawing ington State Department of Veterans Affairs, 2006. She has taught at the School of the Art together musical influences from Ireland, where he previously worked as a veterans Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, Brittany and the Balkans. Their latest CD, The advocate. He also worked in information the Ox-Bow School of Art, South Suburban Western Shore, is available through cdbaby. technology and human resources as the College, Gary Comer Youth Center, the client training program manager for Avue University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute 2001 Technologies Corporation in Washington, of Technology. She is assistant professor of Monica Patterson Sloan (MPA’10), Billings, D.C. He and his wife, Beth Gill, have been visual art at Antioch College. Mont., is an administrative assistant, coordi- married since 2008. nating marketing and community outreach Connie Czepiel, Newcastle, age 60, decided and planning projects for the Billings office Lisa McElroy, Milwaukee, Wis., earned her to take time out to give back by joining the of Sanderson Stewart, an engineering and MD degree at Michigan State University and Peace Corps. She served in Botswana, Africa, community development firm providing ser- serves as resident physician, general surgery, working on the AIDS pandemic. She vaca- vices throughout the Rocky Mountain region. at the Medical College of Wisconsin and tioned in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia Monica married Travis Sloan in summer 2011. affiliated hospitals. and Mozambique, where she snorkeled with a 30-foot whale shark! She is now back home Larissa Mansfield, Asaa, Nordjylland, Denmark, doing accounting and personnel consulting is studying development and international at her own business, Corporate Problem Submit a Class Note for the spring issue at relations in graduate school at Aalborg Resolution (corpproblemresolution.com). www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform University in Denmark.

Spring 2012 | 41 News & Notes

Her interest in peace-related issues began when she was a small child growing up in England in the after- math of World War II. “The ‘atom bomb’ terrified me, and I identified with the marchers who tried to stop the buildup at the annual Easter campaign in the UK,” she recalls. “I became an With all the conflicts going on in the world right now, it’s hard to adult activist when our eldest son Alex remember that less than 15 years ago, the Good Friday Agreement was born in 1977. It’s hard to remember brought considerable peace to the parties in the now how terrifying some of the Cold conflict in the North of Ireland, and less than War political rhetoric was. I knew I had 20 years ago, Nelson Mandela to add my part to those trying to end became president of South it.” Later in her career, she decided Africa, ending more than 300 she wanted to explore peace stud- years of colonization and apart- ies as an academic area, asking heid. For faculty member emerita serious questions about the Cold Dr. Helena Meyer-Knapp, these War and why peace movements developments mean one thing: weren’t answering them. “I took There is hope for peace a step I highly recommend, the in our world. mid-life Ph.D., which I completed in 1990,” she says. A teacher and scholar, Meyer-Knapp joined Evergreen in 1972, spend- Having arrived on campus just in ing the next few years building the time to sit in on the college-wide college’s original academic advising evaluation of that very first year’s program. She co-taught her first program work, Meyer-Knapp has worked closely with faculty member emerita Nancy Taylor with her colleagues through Evergreen’s in 1976, focused around adult women re- sometimes painful and sometimes exhila- turning to college, and continued her commit- rating development. As she watched the ment to women and historically underrepresent- college grow and state support decline, she ed students by helping to build and sustain the and her husband, faculty member Rob Knapp, college’s Evening and Weekend Studies program. both realized that faculty and students would She was honored with emerita status in 2008. need financial support to continue to examine and experiment. Meyer-Knapp has taught programs in peace, politics and ethics, and Asian and women’s studies, and she has done They made a number of joint decisions to support the college, extensive research on peacemaking and strategic studies. After a including naming Evergreen in their wills. “We are committed for yearlong fellowship at Harvard’s Bunting Institute (now the Radcliffe the long term because Evergreen has done and continues to do Institute for Advanced Study), she authored the book Dangerous important work innovating in the substance and processes for higher Peace-making (2003), which examines peacemaking in seven of the education and doing so in the public realm,” she explains. “We put our world’s war zones, and offers tools for resolving complex conflicts. investment and commitment behind the students and people working She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2009, spending a semester at the college right now, and it’s our strategy to make it useful in the teaching at the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee largest possible way.” University in Seoul, South Korea.

Photo: Hannah Pietrick '10.

Laura Handy-Nimick (MiT’05), Sumner, estab- 2004 lished Life’s Handy Work (lifeshandywork.com), Heather (Follings) Barry (MPA), Denver, Colo., a nonprofit providing the children of Nepal is the director of Government Affairs and Exter- Orphans Home with education, technical train- nal Relations for Denver International Airport. ing, housing and small business grants as they Previously, she served as director of Legislative grow into adulthood. Services and City Council liaison, along with other positions with the city and county of Jessica Brooke Huffman, Portland, Ore., Denver. She was the head of Denver’s Neigh- joined the Insights to Health Clinic in Multnomah Cecilia (Sis) LaVigne (MiT’05), Gig Harbor, is borhood Relations Department and worked Village in December. She earned her doctorate a special education teacher in the Peninsula as environmental programs manager at the in naturopathic medicine from the National School District. In March 2011, she started Department of Environmental Health. College of Natural Medicine and is a licensed Purdy Pickle Company (purdypickle.com), naturopathic physician with in-depth training which offers pickles made with organic Joshua Jason Hansell (MiT’06), Seattle, is a in behavioral health, ingredients from local sources. Japanese literature teacher at Chief Sealth In- homeopathy and ternational High School and was the recipient naturopathic cardiology. Matthew Phillipy, Spokane, earned his Master of the Teacher Training scholarship, awarded Previously, she worked in Education degree from Eastern Washington by the Japanese Ministry of Education. He in the social service field University in 2005. He teaches environmental will study at Miyazaki University in Japan. serving high-risk teens science at West Valley City School, which he and adults. She lives on considers the equivalent of Evergreen. During a small, urban farm and the summer he serves as a teacher-ranger Submit a Class Note for the fall issue at enjoys organic garden- at Mount Rainier National Park. He became a www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform ing, hiking and yoga. first-time father recently to Oliver Odin Phillipy.

42 | Spring 2012 News & Notes

Having studied conflict resolution all over the world, Meyer-Knapp continues to critically evaluate Evergreen’s growth as an institution, and she encourages her colleagues to do the same. Problems and solutions often come with conflict, she explains, but even the most intractable come to an end sometime. “We had an Evergreen program once called Problems without Solutions: Israel/ Palestine, Northern Ireland and South Africa,” she says. “And now, two decades later, two of these three regions have been radically transformed by something one can only call ‘peace.’ All kinds of peacemaking entail people who were once hostile becoming ready to work together to cross over the bridge to peace, and that takes imagination and courage.” It’s that kind of imagination and courage that she and Knapp hope their gifts will support and inspire at Evergreen.

“My life these days is rich beyond belief,” says Meyer-Knapp. “The fact that it is so owes a lot to the support Evergreen has given my strong sense of curiosity, my commitment to community building, and to the groups of colleagues and students with whom I have been able to work. I have been very lucky to have been a part of the place for nearly 40 years.”

Below: Community members and Evergreen students lead a march on the Capitol in protest of the Gulf War, April 1, 1991. Photos courtesy of The Evergreen State College Archives.

If you would like to learn more about the Cooper Point Circle, planned giving in general, or how you can make a planned gift to Evergreen, visit: give.evergreen.edu/cooperpointcircle or contact Sasha Cornellier at [email protected] or 360.867.6322.

2006 updated policy procedures, and coordinated 2008 Caitlin Robertson (MiT’08), St. Paul, Minn., projects. In Columbia County, Peter supervis- Peter Boome, University Place, is an award- returned to her home state after a decade of es two emergency management profession- winning Upper Skagit artist whose paintings living in Alaska, als as well as a number of volunteers from and prints are featured in the gallery show, the Pacific Northwest the community, and is in charge of facilitating “Peter Boome: Salish Connections,” at the and Florida. A homeland security grant funds and coordinat- Duwamish Longhouse in Seattle through singer-songwriter ing resources to emergency personnel. June 16. He earned his JD degree from the who describes University of Washington School of Law and her music as “folk- 2007 has had his artwork shown at many juried rock-country-pop,” Jan Hunter, Auburn, joined the Peace Corps events and museums, including the National Caitlin is recording at age 62 with her husband Tom. The couple Museum of the American Indian. her second album. will work in Morocco for two years, teaching Her debut solo album, Coyote Blues, was English, sharing computer skills and helping released in December and is available at to organize activities to advance youth de- caitlinrobertsonmusic.com. velopment. They raised three boys and have seven grandchildren. Peter Tassoni (MPA), St. Helens, Ore., was named director of the Columbia County Hannah Pratt (MiT), Tacoma, teaches at (Ore.) Emergency Management office in Lincoln Center at Lincoln High School in the September. He was the Washington State Tacoma School District. She was recently Emergency Management program coor- awarded National Board Certification. dinator for five years, where he worked to standardize equipment between agencies,

Spring 2012 | 43 Jacquelne Arguea combnes ar and compuer scence o creae somehng beau ul Jacqueline Argueta has always believed in following her own path. At Kentwood High School in Covington, Wash., she started a video program for school-wide announcements. While studying visual art and design at Highline Community College, she won first place in the end-of-the-year Portfolio Show. When she transferred to Evergreen, she enrolled in Computer Science Foundations, even though she hadn’t taken math since high school.

“It has been the most rigorous and intense academic experience of my life, but I am so happy that I took this program,” she says.

As an artist, Argueta sees clearly how her emerging knowledge of computer science can impact her artwork. She plans to combine her two passions and pursue media studies in animation. “I had taken lots of fine arts and graphic design classes, but taking computer science helped me explore the linear thinking part of my brain,” she says. “I was always intimidated by the field because it’s so math- and science-based. But it’s the part that gets down to earth on how the work is done, and it’s beautiful to combine the two and see how a piece can impact and inspire people.”

Argueta gets her inspiration from her parents, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador after that country’s civil war. At a young age, she had the chance to visit her parents’ home country, and saw for herself the incredible difference between the life that they had lived and the life that she did. “I knew that I had to go to college one day, and educate myself to the fullest,” she says. But she knew it would be a struggle financially for her and her parents.

“The Foundation Scholarship opened up the doors for me,” she says. “Because Evergreen is such a small and unique community, it has given me the opportunity to play to my unique talents and pursue them.”

Receiving the scholarship has allowed Argueta to pursue a career in the arts, something she may not have been as willing to do if she had to worry about going into significant debt to pay for college. “It is a real motivator for me to know that a group of individuals believed enough in me to help pay for my schooling, and I know that when I graduate I want to do the same for another student,” she says. “My time at Evergreen has been the most incredible experience of my life. I am truly grateful to be at such an amazing place.”

This fall, The Evergreen State College Foundation secured a $1.5 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which will double the impact of Photos: scholarship gifts to support students in need. You can support students like Jackie Riley at give.evergreen.edu. Shiery.

Greg Cook (MPA’10), Fircrest, is an Ameri- School. He also serves on several other local David Hunter (MiT’11), Port Townsend, Corps member working as a tutor/mentor at boards, including the Pierce County Commu- teaches 6th grade social studies and English/ Bates Technical College in collaboration with nity Connections Citizen Advisory Board, the language arts at the Bellevue Big Picture Tacoma Goodwill. Zoo-Trek Authority, the Joint Municipal Action School, a secondary school-of-choice in its first Committee and the Tacoma Neighborhoods year of operation. He credits his MiT experi- Anders Ibsen, Tacoma, was elected to the and Housing Committee. ence and education with landing this position. District 1 seat of the Tacoma City Council. He has worked at local nonprofits, served as Sarah Minkler, Kennewick, married Justin Allison L. Ledford, Olympia, graduated from a legislative staffer and is currently a law firm McCalmant in August 2011. An attorney, she basic military training at Lackland Air Force administrator. earned her JD from the Gonzaga University Base in San Antonio, Texas, in November He serves on the School of Law. 2011. Airman Ledford completed an intensive, board of directors eight-week program that included training for SOTA Part- 2009 in military discipline and studies, Air Force ners, which raises core values, physical fitness and basic warfare funds for three Alan Foster, Seattle, earned his MPA degree principles and skills. Tacoma schools: at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. He is a project the Tacoma Katie Waldeck, Oakland, Calif., is a freelance associate with Triangle Associates, an School of the Arts, writer, editor and web producer in Oakland. The Science and environmental dispute resolution and Math Institute and education consulting firm in Seattle. Stewart Middle Submit a Class Note for the fall issue at Tacomic by RR Anderson, posted July 12, 2011 www.evergreen.edu/alumni/alumform at comics.feedtacoma.com/tacomic.

44 | Spring 2012 News & Notes

Jacquelne Arguea combnes ar and compuer scence o creae somehng beau ul

Top to bottom: Patrick Lewis, Karissa Carlson and Danielle Swain. Photos: Shauna Bittle '98 and Riley Shiery.

2010 2011 Caleb Knappe-Langworthy, Rochester, Minn., Shon Eck, Sun City, Ariz., is attending law married Lauren Ann Langley on Nov. 12 school at Phoenix School of Law. He expects at Camp Ehawee in Mindoro, Wis. Caleb to graduate with a JD in 2014. graduated from Lincoln High School in Lake City, Minn., before coming to Evergreen, William Quaife, University Place, is pursuing and teaches at Golden Hill in the Rochester his graduate degree in counseling at Saint public schools. Lauren works at Rochester Art Martin’s University. Center and owns DoneDotDesigns. Devin Sommer, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was Rodrigo Valenzuela, Olympia, awarded a Fulbright United States Student is working on his MFA in Program grant. He is living, learning and photo media from the Photo by Rodrigo Valenzuela '10 teaching in Turkey. University of Washington. In November, he had two Emily Washines (MPA), Yakima, is the Scott Tipton, Los Angeles, is a freelance video installations featured restoration and remediation coordinator for sound engineer doing production and post- at Seattle’s e4c, 4Culture’s the Yakama Nation Fisheries program. production audio for television, web and storefront gallery for digital film, as well as record work. His website is at art. His photographic and Vivica Williams, Kiev, Ukraine, is a Fulbright scottyaudio.net. video work has been widely Student Fellow researching energy conservation exhibited in his native Chile issues in Ukraine. During 2010-11, she was a Gil- and the Northwest. man Scholar at the International Centre for Policy Studies, a Ukrainian think tank based in Kiev.

Spring 2012 | 45 David L. Hitchens 1939 – 2012

Founding and emeritus faculty member David L. Hitchens passed away on Feb.15 from lung cancer, peacefully and comfortably surrounded by his family at home. Evergreen’s longest-serving faculty member, Dave helped create the innovative, interdisciplinary and internationally-renowned college we know today, and touched thousands of students’ lives during his 41-year tenure at Evergreen. He is survived by his wife Joan ’82, six children, and numerous family and friends. His family encourages donations be made to the David L. Hitchens Scholarship in honor of Frances Marie Rasmussen at The Evergreen State College.

In tribute, we’ve reprinted a sampling of quotes from Dave’s former students about the impact he had on their lives. For a full obituary, and to read more about Dave, please visit www.davidlhitchens.org.

"I remember Dave promising us that he would teach us how to research, and how to write, but, more importantly, how to think. A promise kept, at least for me, and with generous helpings of humor, wisdom and kindness thrown in, more or less for free." Bill Montague ’84

"Your storytelling inspired me and your gentleness and care for "Your teaching is what made me want to be a teacher. Your our class of mostly 18-year-olds created a space where I not only encouragement is what made me believe I could be a teacher. learned about how our country came to be, but also allowed me Only just now typing these words do I recognize that your spirit a path to discover who I was going to be. Now as a school librar- has been with me all these years reminding me, encouraging me, ian, when sharing stories with my students and leading them to challenging me that a brilliant man with a teacher’s heart can chart their own personal and educational discoveries, I’m thankful that I a useful, meaningful, and graceful path through this world." was taught by one of the best!" Leslie Ehrlich ’01 Randy Earwood ’87

"Dave positively affected every student to pass through his doors and left me full of great times and memories. Thanks for everything Dave." Kerry Allen ’07 Looking Backward 05-06

"I walked across the stage to receive my degree and I felt as if Dave was standing right next to me. If not for him and his belief in me, I would not be a graduate today. He gave me faith in myself and bigger dreams to chase. He made it possible for me to look my son in the eye and say, “You need to go to college” without feeling like a hypocrite. He was the protector of my dream when I wasn’t strong enough to do it for myself. Thank you Dave, for everything you’ve given to me and to the world. I will hold you in my heart, always." Rue Beyette ’10

In 1974, Dave Hitchens, Larry Stenberg and Richard Brian sing "The Dean's Song," composed by Malcolm Stilson, an ode based on the original academic deans, Charlie Teske, Mervyn Cadwallader and Don Humphrey, in the throes of figuring out Evergreen's curricular structure.

Photos courtesy of The Evergreen State College Archives.

46 | Spring 2012 Dr. Gloria Ann Harp-Medley ’01, Tacoma, Sept. 24, 2011. In Memoriam Youth counselor, court-appointed guardian ad litem for youth. Travis Leigh Hartman, Littleton, Colo., Apr. 9, 2011. Musician and chef. Due to increased quantity, we will now run extended obituaries in our magazine website, and only publish abbreviated notices in the print Mark L. Hendrickson Cx’07, San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 5, 2011. Philosophy. magazine. Visit evergreen.edu/magazine to read extended memoriams. Tammy Rene Hintz ’91, El Cajon, Calif., Jan. 12, 2011. Homemaker, Erik R. Alexander ’79, Grand Rapids, Mich., April 25, 2010. community services volunteer and frequent missionary to India. Curator and educator, Public Museum of Grand Rapids, instructor, Grand Valley State University. Dotty Jaskar ’75, Lakewood, May 13, 2011. Marriage & family therapist. Gloria Marie Anthony ’89, Vancouver, Dec. 14, 2011. Timothy Nielsen Joeres ’00, Portland, Ore., May 25, 2011. Artist. Volunteer, Evergreen School District, business owner. Michelle Lynn Jordan ’87, Seattle, Nov. 21, 2011. Founded Explorer’s Jean A. Barkley ’96, Olympia, Nov. 2, 2011. Language Institute, Seattle. Retired, Washington Dept. of Labor & Industries. Shelly Jean (Johnson) Leonard ’05, Safety Harbor, Fla., Feb. 11, 2012. Kay Madison Boyd ’76, Lacey, former Chair of The Evergreen State Social worker, candidate for Florida State House of Representatives. College Board of Trustees, Nov. 12, 2010. Former Mayor of Lacey, Chair of the Board, Capital Medical Center. Cyndi Lough ’01, Olympia, Jan. 20, 2012. Software developer, State of Washington. Richard “Dick” M. Boyle ’74, Green Bay, Wis., Oct. 10, 2011. Drug abuse and mental health counselor. Pamela Rae Matson ’86, Shelton, Jan. 23, 2012. Foster parent. Brandon Lee Bryant ’00, Des Moines, Oct. 27, 2011. James D. Moore ’77, Sammamish, Dec. 23, 2011. Founder and Fisheries biologist, Washington State Dept. of Fish & Wildlife. producer, Moore Presentations. Jyl Diane Smith Cameron Cx’72, Kihei, Hawaii, Oct. 24, 2011. Treshell Lorene O’Keefe-Black ’90, Cody, Wyo., Sept. 6, 2011. Board of Directors, J. Walter Cameron Center. Artist, master’s in Chinese medicine. Helenmarie A. (Breeze) Clynch ’87, Seattle, Nov. 30, 2011. Kenneth R. Olendorf ’78, Seattle, Oct. 21, 2011. Musician. Retired registrar, Seattle Prep. Bonita A. (Thomas) Pattison ’79, Lacey, Nov. 18, 2011. Counselor, Cheryl J. Colehour ’89, West Seattle, Nov. 30, 2011. Instructional Morningside Industries. designer, fiber artist. Angela J. “Alex” Sewell Cx’96, Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 16, 2011. Barbara Anne Crossland ’90, MPA’92, Sun Lakes, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2011. Former facilities designer at Evergreen. Timothy John Tiernan ’01, Seattle, Nov. 29, 2011. Eric Edward Featherstone ’93, Gig Harbor, October 9, 2011. Salvina Valdillez-Patten ’98, Taholah, March 10, 2011. Quinault tribal Certified hypnotherapist. member, caseworker, State of Washington Workfirst program. Jonathan Morgan Forest ’98, West Linn, Ore., Jan. 26, 2012. James L. Williams ’83, Federal Way, June 7, 2 011. U.S. Army veteran, Ret. Lead library database administrator, Clackamas County Public Library. Gary L. Workman ’98, Big Bear City, Calif., Nov. 3, 2011. Counselor, Big Wife: Dr. Lori (Hajdu) Forest ’97. Bear Recovery Services.

Dr. Willie Parson, former Evergreen faculty member, died January 5. Dr. Parson came to the college in 1972, and served 34 years as a member of the faculty and an academic dean both in Olympia and at Evergreen’s Tacoma Program. He earned his B.S. in biology at Southern University, and his M.S. in bacteriology and Ph.D. in microbi- ology at Washington State University. He called college “the cure-all for social ills and injustices.”

Dr. Parson’s teaching methodology enabled urban adult learners not only to develop specific knowledge in sci- ence, but also to understand the many intersections of science with other aspects of society and the human con- dition. His lifelong commitment to the pursuit of social and economic justice and power, owing partly to his own early life experiences with de jure segregation, led him to take an active role in both academic pursuits and in the community on such issues.

The Evergreen State College First Peoples’ Coalition named Dr. Parson Teacher of the Year in 1987. He was dedicated to helping elementary, middle and high school students of color to cultivate their interests in science, mathematics and engineering, spending time in middle and high school classrooms and in the community talking to students and parents about student success, college preparation, content issues in science and careers in scientific and technical fields. “I believe in helping others by using my scien- tific training for the public good,” he said.

Upon his retirement in 2005, Dr. Parson received Faculty Emeritus status. He and his wife Sylvia moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where he continued his commitment to helping others through community service and established a STEM program (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) for high school students at Allen University. He became head of Allen’s biology department, and at the time of his death, held the position of executive vice-president and CIO. He is survived by Sylvia, his wife of 48 years.

Spring 2012 | 47 Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage The Evergreen State College Magazine PAID Spring 2012, Vol. 33, No.2 Olympia, WA Published by The Office of College Relations Permit No. 65 The Evergreen State College 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW Olympia, WA 98505

Come share good times and good company—dance on Red Square with alumni bands at Saturday night’s 40th Anniversary Party, enjoy wine and coffee tastings plus the Beer Garden, take a tour through downtown and a walk in the woods, record your Greener Story, and much more!

Featuring: Evergreen Presidents: Charles McCann, Dan Evans, Richard Schwartz, Jane Jervis, and Les Purce

Matt Groening ‘77 Joe Dear ’76 Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner ‘91 Creator of “The Simpsons” Chief Investment Officer of CalPERS Executive Director of Momsrising.org

Lynda Weinman ‘76 Craig Bartlett ‘81 Matthew Frye Jacobson ‘81 Cofounder and Executive Creator of ”Hey Arnold!” Professor of American Studies Chair of lynda.com and “Dinosaur Train” at Yale University

Dan Tishman ’77 Lindsey Bolger ‘91 John Stocks ‘81 Board Chair, Natural Resources Defense Director of Coffee Sourcing Executive Director of the Council; CEO of Tishman Construction & Relationships, Green Mountain Coffee National Education Association

Register today! www.evergreen.edu/40/return